I Don't Want To Be Back
by SomeGoldfishGuy
Summary: Edd left Peach Creek four years ago, without telling anyone. How will his friends react when he comes back after so long? Will Edd want anyone to notice? How much has this quiet little town changed since he's been here? Maybe Edd won't like all the answers he'll get to these questions...
1. Chapter 1

I don't want to be back. After four years, I'm here, yet again. Why did I have to come back? And of all places to move back to, why the street across from the cul-de-sac? I guess I should introduce myself, or rather, reintroduce myself. I am Eddward Vincent, or, as I was called in New York, Daniel. Don't worry, this name change will make more sense as I go on. Anyways, I have just moved from New York to Peach Creek, during the winter break, and have moved back to the place I never wanted to see again. I'll explain that later on as well.

I have certainly changed since I've last been here, four years ago. I'm now 16, and have changed physically and mentally. I'm still smart, wear a beanie, and still hide most of my hair, although it has grown out. Some of my physical changes have been that I have gotten stronger, taller, more masculine looking, and have changed my clothing apparel. I'm about six foot one, with the hair that does stick out from under my beanie down to the back of my collar. I've gotten somewhat muscular, not bodybuilder muscular, but definitely more aesthetically pleasing. In fact, I've changed so much that most of my old friends probably wouldn't recognize me.

As for my mental changes, there are so many that this will probably take a while to explain. I'll start off by saying that I have become blunt, and just get straight to the point. I don't care what other people say about me or others, and I'm not really a goody two shoes anymore. I swear sometimes, but only when I'm very blunt or annoyed by someone. I don't always follow rules set for me, but as I said before, I honestly don't care. Funnily enough, I've become a very good liar, as opposed to me in grade school. Something else that has happened to me is that I hate talking to people. I'm not someone who likes to have friends, mostly because I hate small talk, while I love conversations that talk about complex ideas, and conversations that can go on for forever.

Another change is my love for music. As most of you probably know, I can play a pedal steel guitar, but I despise it. My parents had me learn how to play when I was young, and forced me to go to the lessons. While I may not like playing that, I do enjoy playing an actual guitar. I learned to play a couple years ago, and found that I really enjoyed it. I also make music on a computer program, because funnily enough, I enjoy listening to and making dubstep, and other forms of it. Yes, I understand, it's quite amusing, but I enjoy it, so I'll keep doing it. I can't sing very well, but I don't care too much.

Oh, and something else I'm good at is that I…I can breakdance. Yes, it may seem all amusing and comical to you, but I can dance very well. I've been learning since the start of my freshman year, and I've done it for about two and a half years since then. So yeah, I'm pretty frickin' good.

So, I guess I should tell you what happened before I moved. Alright, here's what happened. It was after the whole situation with Eddy's brother, and now everyone seemed to be fine with us. We were friends with everyone, and everything seemed to be going well. However, Eddy soon started wanting to work on more scams. I helped him with a few, until a month later, I realized that he didn't care for me that much, and only wanted me for his scams. Once he became friends with everyone else, he didn't need me anymore, simple as that. I figured this out, and started to distance myself from him, and didn't help him with his scams anymore. He told everyone else lies about me, and they started to turn on me. The only one who was still my true friend was Ed, and he was so great to have around, as my parents were almost always away at work, and my friends had now turned on me.

The lies Eddy had told them worked surprisingly well, and I still don't know exactly what Eddy had told them, although I believe it went along the lines that I had come up with several of the scam ideas that he worked on the past month. Whatever he told them, they believed him, and distanced themselves from me, sometimes bullying me because of it. I began to become depressed to some degree, no longer feeling the happiness I felt when everyone was able to make amends. I began feeling so lonely and hurt, I would dread going to school. Now not only were the Kankers bullying me, but so had almost everyone else I had once called "friend." I didn't know what to do with myself at that point. That was, until I heard something from my parents that would change my life for the better.

They told me that we were moving to New York, so that they could handle business better. We had moved once before, but I don't remember that well. I was happy for the move, knowing that I would be able to escape the torment of my life in Peach Creek. I decided not to tell anyone, fearing that they would try to get even with me somehow, or that they would somehow find me in New York. I never told anyone, not even Ed, as he might spill it to everyone else. Ed was the only person I would feel bad about leaving. He was my true friend, he stayed with me through the bad, and even though Eddy told him to stay away from me, he would still come by and visit me. Everyone else, though, I plainly didn't give a shit what they thought, and they would be better off without me anyways. So that's why I moved.

When I was living in New York, I wanted to get rid of my old life in Peach Creek. I never accomplished anything there, beside schoolwork, and living there was just a waste of my time. I decided I'd change what I was called, so that my old friends would find me on social media. I wanted to never be associated with Peach Creek again. That's where my new name, Daniel, came from. I managed to leave without a trace, and no one found out, as far as I knew.

Life in New York was great. I made some good friends, loyal and true friends who would back me up. I learned many new hobbies and activities, and felt like this was where I belonged. This is who I wanted to be, and who I was. My grades were great, my after school activities were enjoyable, my friends were so much better than my so-called "friends" in Peach Creek, everything seemed so much better and fulfilling. That was, until three and a half years later, my parents said that they were moving back to Peach Creek because business had slowed, and that they wanted to move back to be with family and friends. I, obviously, had no say in this move.

I had a month to say goodbye to my friends, but I said that I would meet with them as much as I could. I felt horrible, dreadful, and lost that I was going back to this blot in my past. I was leaving my true and real friends in New York, and going back to my "friends" in Peach Creek. I didn't know what to do, whether I should just try to hide who I am, or whether I should announce that I'm back. I decided with the former, as it would be foolish to say I'm back after leaving without a trace. Either way, I was back.

And I didn't want to be.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews, favorites, and follows. First thing is that this will probably turn into an Edd/Marie fanfic and I'm planning on it, but it may take a while to get there, so don't worry! Also, all of this is in Edds perspective, but if that ever changes, I'll say whose p.o.v. it is. Also, I don't own the rights to Ed, Edd, and Eddy, just thought I should add this in here. Alright, that's it, enjoy the next chapter!**

We had moved all of our possessions into our house, scattered about inside our house in boxes, on Tuesday, in the evening. We all slept on the ground for the first night, but I didn't have any complaints. As I helped Mother and Father with the boxes that hold all of our possessions, I couldn't help but think about how much I was going to dread going to Peach Creek High School. It was Wednesday, the first week of break for the school here, which meant I had a week and a half to be alone, and do what I wanted. _Maybe I could ride my bike around and see what Peach Creek looks like now. Huh, I wonder if it's changed from when I left it. Why do I care?_

"Eddward, can you help your father unpack some of those boxes in the living room, please?" My mother said to me, catching me while I was deep in thought. I guess I should add in here that my parents don't call me Daniel, but I'm fine with it. They can call me whatever they please, as long as it doesn't damage my reputation.

"Yes, Mother." I said, happy to help my dad set up the things in the living room, which included the TV we have, along with other pictures and miscellaneous items.

It took some time to get everything set up, and next was the beds for our rooms. I set up my own bedframe, while my mom and dad set theirs up in the master bedroom. Our house was slightly smaller, one floor, three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Well, at least I got a bedroom and bathroom to myself. This was one of a few advantages of being an only child. Another was that I was never bothered when I was doing work, or some other activity.

After about five minutes, I got the bed-frame set up. After many years of building numerous items or inventions, I had become really handy. I actually wanted to work with cars, but I couldn't get a job anywhere because I was too young, so I just had to stay content with what I was doing. Either way, I was really good at putting things together, and I enjoyed doing it. After I got my bed-frame put together, I went to get my mattress from the entryway. _Boy, we have a lot of crap stuffed in here_ I thought to myself, as I picked my way through the junk we had piled up there. Eventually, I got my mattress, and got it to my room. After I had made my bed, I started to get to work on my desk.

The entire day was filled with setting everything up in our house, from bedrooms to washrooms, from living rooms to offices (which the third bedroom was being converted into). Eventually, after a long day of hard work, we were able to have dinner as a family. This happened to be the best part of the day, and probably of the week. As my parents were almost always away at work, and probably would be for the next upcoming years, I wouldn't be able to have too many opportunities to have a family meal, or talk with them for a long time in general. They would have to go travel and go work on Friday, so I wanted to savor this time with them.

Dinner passed way too fast, and even though I got to talk to my parents, I hadn't told them why I didn't want to be back. I didn't really want to tell them anyways, although they would probably give some sound advice. After everything that has happened with me here before, I didn't want it to come back up. I know that this was a silly notion that it would never come back up, because it would, no matter what I did to try to stop it. But what I could do is to delay it, and try to live in a life without drama, and that's exactly what I was planning to do.

After dinner, my family and I set everything else up, or, everything that we could set up. After everything was said and done, it was around eight at night. I was beat from the past several days, traveling here, unpacking, moving everything into the new house, getting everything into the right spots, and then setting it up. I was tired, and figured I could explore tomorrow or Friday. I wasn't going to think about it now, I was tired. I went to bed, and fell straight into a deep slumber.

. . . .

I awoke to find my room lit up from the sun outside. I checked my phone and saw that it was 10:30 in the morning. _Damn, I slept in. Why didn't my parents wake me up?_ My thoughts were halted when I smelled the wonderful smell of bacon. My mom must have been making breakfast. Hoping it was her pancakes (which was by far the best thing she made) I leapt out of bed. I made my bed, dressed in a navy blue shirt, with black pants, and a grey beanie.

I made my way to the kitchen, and found my mom, making bacon, and when she saw me, she said, "I had hoped this would have gotten you up. I was beginning to worry."

"Oh, no Mother. You have no reason to fear for me. I was simply tired from the past few days. This smells wondrous, by the way."

"Why thank you, Eddward. You should take a seat, breakfast is almost ready. Or should I say, lunch?" I chuckled at her comment about me sleeping in late, but I took my seat, and gladly waited for my mom to bring over breakfast. In a few moments, she placed it down before me, and I ate it, completely happy that I was able to have some of her pancakes. Even if I had become a good cook from cooking for myself over the past few years, nothing I tried to make would match Mother's pancakes.

"So Eddward, why don't you go out and try to find your old friends, huh? I would think they would still be around." As my mother said these words, I had a feeling of worry and slight panic fall over me. I wasn't going to lie to her, even if I could do it easily, and I didn't want to tell her the truth of what happened. So, instead, I dodged the truth.

"Well, to be completely honest, Mother, I would rather spend today with you. After all, you will be leaving again tomorrow. I can find them tomorrow, don't worry."

"Aw, how sweet of you. Alright, we can spend today together. Your father is in our bedroom, getting his clothes in order in the closet. You know how orderly he can be."

"Oh, all too well." I replied, remembering how orderly I was in the past. I had toned it down a little now, but I still like to have everything in order. I'm glad I'm not as insane as I was before, but I still am a little on the compulsive side.

"So, do you have any plans for today? Or do you just want to sit around?"

"I think we should just stay home. After all, you guys do travel a lot anyways." I really did just want to stay home and be like a normal family for once. We never really got a chance to do that, considering my parents jobs took them away from me, constantly. I guess that's why I had been able to do almost everything a normal adult can do. Oh, hell, any time spent with my parents was great.

"Alright, well, I'm fine with that. Staying home sounds like a great idea. Now what should we do here?" My mother asked.

"Umm, what about watching a movie? We haven't done that in a while."

"I think that sounds like an excellent plan. I'll go get your father, and we can watch whatever movie you want."

"Thank you, Mother. I can get the movie out when I'm done with breakfast. Or, lunch, I guess."

My mom chuckled and left the room. I didn't know what we could watch, but I didn't care that much. I was spending time with my family, something that had become a rarity in my life. After getting done with breakfast, I looked around for movies. I had forgotten that they were still in their box in the entryway, so I looked through them, and eventually settled on "The Bourne Identity." Not exactly the movie I would have expected to pick out to watch as a family, but hey, it worked.

We watched the movie, and talked while we watched it, having fun. I was going to savor every moment of my time with my family, no matter what. After a few hours, the movie had ended, and my parents decided that it would be best to prepare a little for their upcoming trips. It was about one now, and I decided to make myself some lunch while my parents got some stuff ready. I decided on reheating some of yesterday's dinner of pizza, and enjoyed that while watching some more TV. Eventually, I was finished with my lunch, and put my plate into the dishwasher. I didn't have anything better to do, so I went and sat with my parents as they packed for their trips. I sat around, talking small talk with them.

"Do you not have anything better to do with your time? Or are you just talking to us for the sake of talking with us?" My dad's question caught me off guard, but I responded, keeping the conversation on a steady beat.

"Both. I really do enjoy spending time with you both, I hope you know that."

"Thank you, and yes, I love spending time with you too, Eddward. But are you sure you wouldn't rather try and look for your friends?"

"I have plenty of time to do that in the next week or so, dad. I don't have that much time with you guys, though."

"Well, I appreciate that you keep us in your thoughts. I just thought you would have been interested in what has happened since you left here." My dad said.

"Oh, I am, I just have plenty of time for that. Anyways, where are you going, tomorrow?" I ask, mostly to both of them.

"I'm going to London, I'm handling some business over there, as you already know." My father replied.

"I'm going to Silicon Valley in California, working with some of the technology workers over there." My mother spoke from the other room.

"Hmm, nice," was all I said. I wanted to go to some of these places, and I had been traveling before, but I wanted to explore the world. Even if it was a hassle, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. Seeing new places, new wonders of the world, new environments, always sounded alluring. As I sat there, thinking about how lucky my parents were, a knock on our front door got my attention.

"I got it!" I said, as I jumped off the bed. I went to the door, and stepped over some boxes we had still lying about in the entry way. I look through the peephole, and see someone I did not know. _No surprise there,_ I thought, thinking that we had just moved onto the street.

"Hello?" I said, as I opened the door to find a middle-aged woman, holding a plate with something I couldn't identify on it.

"Hello, I'm your next door neighbor, over there," she said as she pointed to my right. "I'm just here to invite you to the neighborhood. I baked cookies yesterday, so I wanted you to have these. Is there anyone else with you?" She asked, after handing me the plate. _Weird way to ask that question,_ I thought.

"Yes, my mother and father are here, I can go get them." I closed the door partway as I went into my parent's bedroom to tell them of the arrival of our neighbor.

My parents both went to talk to the woman, and I went to put the plate of cookies in the kitchen. When I put them down, I decided to try one. _Wow, that's really good! I'll definitely be eating some of those later_ I thought. She was a good cook, if this was anything to base it off of. I went back up to the door, and talked with our neighbor. Her name turned out to be Mrs. Franklin, and her husband was out at work. We talked with her for a short while, thanked her for the cookies, and then my parents went back to packing.

As they did that, I went to put the movies back into their right spots. I did that, and passed my time doing other activities, and of course, talk to my parents as much as possible. At around 4:30, I got a text from my friend back in New York, Nicholas. He was one of the first friends I had made over there, and the friendship lasted even to now. He asked if I had gotten there fine, and I told him I did. We texted a while longer, and eventually he asked me if I was still worried about meeting up with my past friends. I told him yeah, but that I thought I could get past for maybe a couple months if I tried hard enough. As we texted more about that, and how I would expect everyone to act as soon as the word got out, he gave me a little hope. He said that I should try to keep up the act as long as I can, and that he could vouch for me to say that I've lived in New York all my life up until then. I laughed, and said that it was bound to come out eventually, but that I would delay it as long as possible.

Our conversation eventually ended and I went back to getting all the other boxes out of the entry way. I unpacked everything, and put everything into its proper position and eventually got almost everything unpacked. It was around 7:30 now, and my dad was asleep, but my mom was still up for now, watching a program on the television. I decided that I would go and watch it with her, spending the last few hours of her day with my mom. We talked for a while longer before she went to bed at 9:00. I sat and watched TV for another hour or so, and I retired to bed, where I messed around on my phone, and eventually, rested. _Tomorrow will be an interesting day. Hopefully I don't run into anyone I knew._

Over the past four years, I hadn't given this place much thought. I wanted to keep it back in the past, and didn't wonder what had changed or who had changed how. I never gave it much thought, until now. I sat awake, thinking about what I should expect. I knew that Ed was a year older than me and Eddy, but had been held back in third grade. I expected him to have grown up even more, maybe taller than me by a foot. Afterwards, I thought about Eddy, and thought that he would still be short, as he was before. I didn't give him much thought, though.

I wondered if Kevin and Nazz were officially together, after forever. They still weren't boyfriend/girlfriend when I left, and I hoped that changed. It may sound weird, but it was horrible knowing that they were together, but not. I didn't know what to expect from Rolf, Johnny, Sarah, and Jimmy, as they could have changed drastically. My last thought was the Kankers. I sighed inwardly, and thought about the torment they had put us Ed's through. While they tormented us, I did have to admit, Marie was slightly cute, but her attitude, and pretty much everything else about her, wasn't cute. Even if they tormented us, I had to say, they chose us well. May and Ed were practically made for each other, and I wondered if May had turned down her intensity of trying to get Ed. Either way, though, I wasn't sure it would work. Ed was afraid of girls, so I don't know how well that would have worked for May.

Lee was perfect for Eddy, in a strange way. They were both bold, annoying, and tended to be the leader of the group. Even if they were a good match, I don't think either of them want to have an actual relationship with each other.

And then there was Marie. I never really knew what she saw in me, if anything. Most of the time, I thought she just enjoyed messing with me, and bullying me. I never really understood why she ever chose me. Maybe it was because her sisters chased Ed and Eddy, and that I was the only Ed left. _Whatever the reason, I don't care all too much, and I hope I don't find out soon._ Was the last thought I thought before slipping into dreamland.

 **A.N.: As another chapter passes, this one doesn't seem to cover huge topics, or has a huge amount of drama, but things will build up as the story goes on, trust me on this. Anyways, reviews are always appreciated, and this story will pick up eventually! Thank You!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A.N.: Thank you for the reviews and favorites once again guys! As my first fanfic, I hope you all enjoy it, and as always, I'm up for reviews! Onto the reading!**

As I awoke in bed, I found the sheets sprawled across the bed, draping onto the floor. My body was thrown about, limbs everywhere, and I noticed that I left my mouth open. _Oh, god, now my mouth is dry as hell_ I thought. I also wondered why I had woken up like that, and what had happened during the night. I got a glass of water and drank it, turning my mouth from a desert to a nice, cool ocean. I went back into my room and made my bed, still confused about my sleeping position. But as I was making my bed, an image popped into my head. It was a couple of familiar faces, both being from the cul-de-sac. It was Ed and Eddy.

After I saw this image, I remembered that I had a nightmare. I could hardly remember anything, and all that I could gave me a strange feeling of nostalgia and fear. I remembered Ed crying into his hands, facing me. Eddy was also facing me, but had a look of hurt and anger on his face as he yelled at me. I don't recall what he was yelling at me, just that he was yelling. I soon realized that this nightmare I had was not a memory, but more of a premonition. Even if both Ed and Eddy were still in their 12 year old forms, this wasn't a memory I had ever remembered. This made me feel slightly more afraid of the future and what it held for me.

I got dressed and went out to the kitchen. I remembered that my parents weren't there, so I would have to make breakfast on my own. I hadn't a clue what to do for today, but then I saw that my parents had left me some money to go to the store, a shopping list, and a note that said "If there's any money left, have fun with it! Also, don't forget to find your friends!" I could tell that they still thought I was still friends with everyone here. _Huh, I guess I'm a better liar than what I thought._ I ate the rest of cereal I had there, and thought about how my parents expected me to bring the groceries back home. All I had was a bike, and what I would have to carry would be at least 12 shopping bags worth. _I would figure that problem out later,_ I thought as I went to go do other tasks that needed to be done.

I woke up earlier today than yesterday, about two hours earlier. As I looked around for any chores to do, that nightmare came back into my head. I didn't know how to feel about it, considering I had several completely different emotions about it. I was scared because I didn't want people to find out, nostalgic because I was coming back to a place I hadn't been to in four years, angry at Eddy because he was mad at me after what HE did, and sad for Ed. Ed was the last person I wanted to hurt, and I hoped that he wasn't hurt. If I did hurt him, I couldn't forgive myself, but I couldn't tell him that I was leaving, or else he would spill it to everyone else. I was afraid at the time that everyone would come at me, or try to find out where I was going. I didn't want to have this in my past, but unfortunately it was now being shoved into my face.

All I could do was sigh, and move on with the day. I cleaned up whatever I could find lying around, but with it being a new house, there wasn't much for me to do. I eventually chose to look around the home a little more and see the details of it all. I started in the kitchen, looking at all the new appliances and countertops. I made my way into the family room and the entry way. _Nothing much to see here_ I thought as I walked down the hallway. I went into the other bedroom being used as an office and looked around. It was a simple square room and none of the boxes had been unpacked yet. I decided it was best to leave it alone for now. I wandered into my parent's room and looked around to see everything nice and orderly. As I walked around for a short time, an idea came to my head, and it was a good idea to pass the time.

I came back into my room and pulled out my guitar. It was an acoustic guitar, light wood face with black painted sides and back. It was quite a simple guitar, but I was fine with it, and it had served me very well. I went on to play for about an hour, playing tunes I made up in my head, songs I had heard, songs I wrote already, and anything else that came into mind. As an hour passed my hands had started to hurt slightly. I decided that I should find something else to do, and put away my guitar. I remembered my computer as I looked at it on the desk across from my bed. I mostly used that thing to make other types of music on it, play games, or just look at facebook or twitter. I remembered that I was in the process of making a song that wasn't necessarily dubstep, but I wasn't thinking about making dubstep in the first place. Instead, this song built on itself, starting out with a clock chime sounding the hour, and eventually building up into the rest of what I had. I had only completed half the song so far, but I didn't want to work on it right now, so I just left my computer there and went on to some other activity to do.

I wondered about some of my other friends over in New York, and what they were doing. I had three really good friends from over there, all true friends, and friends that I could count on. My friend's names were Nicholas, David, and Randy. Nicholas was an Asian, about 5'10" just from my guess, and always happy. Nick had short hair and had glasses, and a contagious smile. Seriously, if you saw him smile or laugh, you would feel compelled to do the same exact thing. He was the first person who became really good friends with, and he told me everything I should know about living there. He was always the friend I could count on, and that was made clear in his text message last night, saying that he would lie for me and say that I had been living in New York my entire life.

Then there was David. He was half Mexican and half White, and always had a dirty mind. My friends and I would always wonder what was wrong with him, or why his phone had…pictures of…I won't go into further details about that. Anyways, he was the strangest one in our group, but you could never tell from his appearance. He was on the short side, about 5'2" and he also wore glasses. He slicked back his black hair and wore glasses as well. He wore pretty average clothes, and as I said, you never really would have guessed just how weird he was on the inside.

Lastly there was Randy. Randy was probably the most badass out of our group, and he was the one who introduced be to breakdance. Randy is Asian, with long hair that covers his eyes and wears dark colors quite often. Randy was very laid back and chill, but if you crossed his path, you would regret the day you made your mistake. Randy was a very nice friend and would stick up for us if any of us were bullied or bothered by someone.

I decided that I would text Randy and see how he's doing. I thought about it for a second, but then decided I'd send David the same text, saying that I was back in Peach Creek. As I half expected, neither answered back, so I decided to watch some TV. I watched some random shows for an hour, and then saw that it was 11:00. I thought about lunch, and eventually chose sushi. Not knowing of any sushi places around, I looked some up. I found one that was close by, and took my bike to go to it.

I locked up my house and went to go get myself some sushi with the money my parents left me. I rode along, and luckily didn't have to go past the cul-de-sac. I don't know what surprises would have waited for me down that street, but I'm not so sure I wanted to find out. I rode my bike, looking at all the sights that I hadn't seen when I had been here four years earlier. As I rode by it, I skidded to a halt. I looked to my left and saw the shop where Eddy, Ed and I got our jawbreakers. I chuckled as I saw that the shop was still there. _Maybe if I have any money left I can stop by here_ I thought to myself as I went back on my way. Fate, however, had other plans for me.

The sushi place luckily wasn't that far away, about a five minute bike ride. I realized that I didn't have a lock with me, but I didn't mind. If someone were to try and steal it, they would have to face me, and if they're carrying a bike they probably won't run very fast or far. I put my bike onto the bike rack and walked into the sushi bar. Well, it wasn't very popular, and not necessarily a bar, either. It was more like a small restaurant, with tables and booths set up around the place. I looked around and didn't see many people, but I still had high hopes.

I took my order and sat down at a small table with two chairs. As I waited, I checked out my phone and saw that Randy had texted back a few minutes ago.

" _Hey Dan, glad to see you made it back. Hope things go well for you, and be sure to get all the ladies with those dance moves, lol"_

 _"_ _Lol, don't you worry, and I have to deal with all the other shit that'll come up before I can get the ladies"_ I replied back. I looked through anything else on my phone, just trying to pass the time as they made my sushi roll. A couple minutes later, Randy texted back.

 _"_ _Aw, I forgot about that. Well, I hope you can get through all that shit. If you need any help, hit me up, aight?"_

" _I know Randy, don't worry, I can work through it._ " I sent back. I knew I could get through it, and I always found a solution. My friends knew this well, and I was always able to make an excuse, find a reason, or something else that would get me and my friends out of trouble. I actually got us out of getting sent to jail for trespassing with a weapon. Alright, I guess you're a little curious about this, so I'll give some insight.

Something that my friends and I like to do is to urbex, which is exploring abandoned buildings and looking around. I like to go urbexing because the abandoned buildings are so quiet and somewhat peaceful, if a little unnerving. I loved how these buildings were once bustling and full of life, and now they sit, abandoned, forgotten, and alone. Anyways, long story short, my friends and I were exploring a bowling alley, and my friend Jameson brought a knife with him just in case we encountered anyone who would want to hurt us. I told the officer that the knife was for utility purposes, just in case wires or something else needed to be cut, and that if we were using it for a bad intent, then why was it so far down in his bag? He let us off the hook, and we weren't charged with anything.

Soon after my sushi plate arrived, and I was able to dig in. It was called an ichi roll, and it had crab on the inside of the roll, with shrimp on the outside. As I ate, I thought once again as to how much everyone had changed. Or, how I thought they had changed. It would be interesting to find out who was who when I got back to school, or unless I saw them earlier, later in the break. I had hoped that I would be able to avoid seeing them up until school, and that's when I thought about what I would have as a school schedule.

I knew that I would have calculus, as I had already gone through the first half of it in New York. Then there was AP U.S. history, English 11, Spanish 2, chemistry probably, and then I hoped advanced music. I wasn't completely sure, but I was thinking that those would be my classes. Eventually I finished my roll, paid, left a tip, and walked outside. As I had expected, no one took my bike, and I got on it and rode back to my house.

I took my time as I had nothing left to do at home, and slowly rode around the streets. As I was a few streets away from my house, however, I noticed someone. He had short and curly dark brown hair, with a white t-shirt and green shorts. He had a small belly on him, and was wearing sandals and for some reason was…staring at me. It was as if he was trying to look through my soul, whoever this person was. He creeped me out, and as I got closer, my anxiety turned in a completely different direction. A bad one towards fear.

It was Jonny.

I tried not to make my fear apparent, but I kept glancing at him as I passed. That's when my fear went up a whole new level as I saw the look of confusion on his face turn to shock just as I passed him. I stopped my bike, and turned my head towards him, and saw the shocked face of Jonny standing a few feet from me. That's when he said words I hadn't heard in a long time.

"Double D?"

 **A.N: And thus a new chapter was born. The next one will have lots of dialogue, so be prepared. This chapter may be a little short, but I'll be coming out with a lot more. As always, I would appreciate reviews and I do love reading them. Anyways, I'll see you in the next chapter.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A.N:** **WARNING: THIS CHAPTER IS A MUST-READ WITH LOTS OF DIALOGUE AND INFORMATION ABOUT CHARACTERS AND BACKSTORY!** **A lot of info in this chapter! Certain character developments were thought up by DMan51, many thanks to him for the ideas and reviews! Also, the song that Edd was working on in the last chapter is actually a song I'm working on now. I might post a link to it when it is done, but that won't be for a while longer. Also, there is language used in this one, so you have been warned! Anyways, reviews are always appreciated, and onto the next chapter!**

When I heard Jonny use my old nickname, I wondered what I should do. I thought about lying and saying that I didn't know what he was talking about, but I knew he would see through my lie. I didn't want someone to find out that I was back already, but I didn't know what to do. Oh well, if I would want anyone to find out I was back, it would be Jonny. I knew he could keep a secret.

With my reasoning, I sighed and replied, "Yes, Jonny. I'm…I'm back…" Jonny just stared at me like I was from another planet, and then I realized that he may go and tell everyone else, so I sprang off my bike and practically shouted "DON'T TELL ANYONE! Please. I'm not ready."

Jonny finally stopped looking at me like I was some alien creature, and then said with a voice a hell of a lot calmer than I would have expected, "You…you're back. Come on, I have a lot to tell you." With that, he started walking in the direction I was heading.

"Jonny, wait. Where are we going?"

"Heh, you remember my name. I thought I would have been the first you forgot about over here. Anyways, we're going to your place, aren't we?" I was shocked by what Jonny had said. I couldn't forget my old friends, and Jonny was actually the nicest one to me besides Ed after the whole incident that led to me being hated. Also, how did he know where I was going? How did he know I was me? I decided to ask him about it, fearing that I was far more recognizable than what I thought.

"Jonny, how did you know who I was? And where I was going?"

"I have my ways. What, did you really think it was Plank who told me the secrets and other information I had? And I thought you were the smart one…" Jonny's comment scared me a little, and I was just going to ignore that last comment. I walked with Jonny to my house and let him inside. I led him to my living room and we sat down across from each other so we could see each other easier. I didn't know what to say, but luckily Jonny started off.

"So, would you like to ask the questions, or should I?" I thought about it for a second, and decided to delay the news about the cul-de-sac.

"I think you should ask the questions you are curious about first, Jonny." I spoke, feeling a little fear about the questions I would eventually ask.

"Well, first thing's first, how have things been?" I was taken aback by what he had just asked. He didn't ask that question with malice, or in a snarky way, but was instead asking as a friend would, and I almost thought he was going to trick me, or make a joke, but I realized he was being honest.

"Uh, I…I've been…good?" I didn't know how to answer a question like that, and I saw how good of a question it was, asking what had happened to me in the past four years.

"Come on, Double D, you know what I mean by that. What have you done in the past four years? Tell me everything, and then I'll tell you everything you've missed over here." Jonny said after my crap answer.

"Alright, well, I left the cul-de-sac for New York, and I never looked back. That's why I never said anything to you guys about my leaving." I could see Jonny's face turn into intently listening and a face of disgust, for whatever reason. I continued.

"I didn't want to be back here and I was glad to leave. I moved to another school in New York and changed my nickname to Daniel, to get away from my past. I made friends and changed, physically and mentally. Oh, that reminds me, am I that easily recognizable?" Jonny looked at me for a second, then answered.

"No, now get back to the story."

"Alright, Jesus, you don't have to be pushy. Anyways, I've changed, and while I'm still smart, I break rules sometimes, but I always get away."

At this, Jonny smiled, and said, "You know, I always thought you would turn out to be a rule breaker. Funny, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess. How would you think I would be a rule breaker?"

"Well, you were always a goody two shoes, I thought you would either change, or have a massive outburst at some point in time. I felt that you couldn't hold in all of your anger, and I was expecting the outburst more than you changing, although, I think this one is better for you, especially where you are now."

"That's true. I still might have an outburst though, you never know. Alright, well after that I made my best friends and hung out with them a lot. I learned lots of new talents, like playing the guitar, making music on my computer, and I've become a good liar. My parents haven't changed much, and they still aren't home all that often." I paused and thought for a second before finishing off. "That's about all I think you would be interested in, I think."

"Why did you leave so fast, and without telling us?" Jonny asked quite abruptly.

"Um, well, it was because everyone turned on me. I thought you knew about that."

"Well, yeah, but why didn't you tell us?"

"I just…I didn't want to tell you guys. I didn't think that you would have cared at all. The only one who I feel bad about leaving is Ed, but I don't think any of you other guys would have cared about my leaving." I answered, remembering that time, and how sad I was.

"Hah, oh how wrong you are," Jonny said, and this both surprised and scared me.

"Oh, dare I ask what you mean?" I spoke to myself, but Jonny heard.

"Don't worry, you don't have to ask that question yet. I don't think that you'll like the answers." Now I was really scared.

"Um, so what about Plank? What happened to him?" I asked, delaying finding out what happened to my old friends.

"Eh, I threw him out. You know how I got bullied by everyone after I beat you guys up after the event with Eddy's brother, right?" I nodded my head. "Well, I was bullied for a while, and eventually they started picking on the fact that I had an imaginary friend, who wasn't so imaginary. Don't worry, I'll tell you that later. Anyways, I threw him out, but that didn't change the fact that I was bullied until…Nah. I'll tell you later."

"What do you mean by 'not so imaginary'?" I asked, once again delaying the inevitable.

"Well, don't think of me as crazy, but I can hear voices. Not in a schizophrenic way, but just random voices that say important information. That's how I knew you were Double D. Anyways, I used Plank as a physical object so I could have something that I thought the voices came from. So, that's why I had Plank in the first place."

"Hmm, interesting." I said, thinking about what Jonny had just told me. _So that explains how he knew things that he shouldn't have…somewhat._ I wondered whether I should ask the questions I was nervous about, and how much they would surprise me. I decided to ask about the person I thought would give me the most comfort that things hadn't changed all that much.

"What about Nazz?" I could feel the butterflies in my stomach. Even if I liked her in the past, these butterflies had nothing to do with elementary crushes. They had to do with the changes, and what has happened since I left. I don't know why I was scared and nervous, and then I remembered what Jonny had said earlier. _"Oh how wrong you are."_ I was worried how much I had changed them because I had left. _Wait, why am I worried? These asses hated me until I left. Who knows? I might enjoy these answers._ But Jonny was right. Oh how wrong I was.

Jonny's face got serious when he heard her name, and simply said, "Oh, you will not like this answer," he said, almost in a whisper.

"Why won't I like this answer? Just tell me, ok? I want to hear about my former friends." With a sigh, Jonny went on to answer my questions.

"Ok, well, she's gone through a lot. She and Kevin dated for a couple years after you left, but then she found Kevin cheated on her, and she was pissed. Nazz took out everything she had and beat the crap out of Kevin. She has never spoken to him in a long time, and when she does, it's nothing nice. Anyways, she was wary of men after that, but a few months after her and Kevin broke up, her parents divorced. She's been really sad, and tends to be asses towards guys, but that doesn't stop guys from trying to get with her. She talks to a couple guys, but she doesn't seem to be interested in them. As you could probably imagine, she's head of the cheer team, and she has got a body to die for. In the end, she was sad for quite a few months, but now she's become, somewhat of her old self. She still gets angry at people, and she sure as hell isn't her innocent self, but her old self is still in her."

I sat in shock at what I had just heard. _If this is who I thought wasn't gonna change much, WHAT THE FUCK HAS EVERYONE ELSE TURNED INTO?!_ I screamed mentally. I was honestly scared about how much everyone else had changed, and I started feeling a little queasy. I was unsure if I should have kept asking, or whether I should just have him stop right there.

"I told you you weren't gonna like the answer." Jonny was right. I couldn't believe what had happened to her. Our little cul-de-sac seemed perfect in its own way. The only problems were Ed, Eddy and I, and most of the time these were minor inconveniences to the children of the cul-de-sac. I had never thought about the bad that could enter our lives at some point. Now I was afraid to ask about everyone else. Instead, I asked the next question about her.

"How did she react when I left?"

"Well, she was scared for you. In fact, we all were. There were rumors going around that you had died, gone missing, got kidnapped, and other various theories. Nazz at first believed that you had died, and that's when another rumor was thrown out that you had…killed yourself…after what had happened. Nazz along with others felt guilty, and that's when some of us tried to figure out what had happened. We knocked at your door, but no one answered. We tried to call, and no one answered. We tried to find you everywhere, ask around, and find you online. Nothing. We never knew what happened to you, and never actually did find out. The rest of the cul-de-sac kids still don't know what happened to you, but now I know." When I heard this, I curled up into a ball, and thought about everything that he had just said. I could hardly handle it, and I didn't know what to do with myself. I felt like throwing up right there, and I might have, but that's when I spoke up.

"Let me just sit here…for a few minutes." I was scared. I had never felt this scared in my life. Nothing could equate to what I was feeling at that moment. I realized another reason why I was so scared. I knew that I would have to face this all at some point. It was going to come out at some point, and when it did, there was probably going to be retribution. I knew that there was going to be hate towards me, for leaving so abruptly, and never telling anyone. I was scared for what they would do to me. I was scared for how much things had changed. I was scared of my future, and of my past. And they were both coming to haunt me, and to hurt me.

"You know Double D, if you want me to come back some other time, I can." Jonny said, breaking the silence.

"No, no, I want to know more." I replied as I swallowed the lump in my throat. I could honestly say that I had no idea at all what to expect, but I decided to power through it and hear what else had changed in the small town I thought I knew.

"Well, I should tell you about Eddy to make some of this story sound clearer. Do you actually know what he told the other kids, or do you just know some of the information?" Jonny spoke up, breaking the little silence. Now that he mentioned it, I never actually did find out exactly what lie he told everyone in the cul-de-sac. Not that I really cared, but I shook my head no.

"So, what he told everyone was that after the scams had stopped, you were the one who wanted to start them back up, and that it was your only way to make money to buy all the things you wanted. Eddy told us that you kept telling him to help with your schemes, and that you were the reason that the scams kept going. We trusted him, but now we know that we shouldn't have. After you left, he didn't have anyone to blame, so he tried to blame Ed. We eventually thought that it was a little fishy that he was blaming Ed now, and we found out that he was the one behind the recent scams." When I heard this, my fear turned into anger.

"Oh, so when Ed gets blamed for it, it's strange, but if I'M the one doing it, it seems perfectly fucking legit!" I spat out, standing up. My anger wasn't directed toward Jonny, but he still felt the need to defend himself.

"Edd, you know I didn't turn my back on you. Everyone still hated me at that point, so please don't get mad at me." I could see slight fear on Jonny's face, so I calmed his fears, but my anger was still burning.

"No, Jonny, I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at every other bastard in the cul-de-sac. Well, besides Ed. He didn't do anything, and he was my only true friend in this goddamn area. Probably in this goddamn town. You know what," I said, as I sat back down on the couch. "Let me hear about everyone else. I don't care anymore. I'm not worried. They wanted me out, so I got out, and if they try to say they were sad, that's their own fucking fault. I'm done with them." I sat down, slouched on one arm of the couch with my arms crossed. Jonny was surprised by my sudden outburst, but he coughed and went on.

"Um, well, long story short, we didn't trust Eddy after that. Everyone felt guilty that we blamed you, but we still never found out where you ended up, so some of us felt sad, others guilty, and a few mad that you left so fast and without warning. After that whole ordeal, Eddy kept trying to scam us, but none of us fell for it. He eventually moved on to scam other places and other schools. He's gotten himself in trouble a lot, and he's gotten in trouble with the police on several occasions."

"Eh, I expected that. Fucker gets what he deserved. What does he look like?"

"He's still short and has gotten a little chubby. He smokes and skips school, and always gets in trouble. Everyone is still surprised that he hasn't been expelled yet."

"Do you think I could take him on?" Jonny seemed surprised by my question, but answered.

"Yeah, I think you could. Why?"

"Oh, just for later reference. Anyways, what happened with him after I left?"

"Well, he was confused and kept trying to find you. He didn't seem too upset, but he was more angry than sad. I think he's still angry with you, so I'd be careful if I were you."

"Oh, don't worry about me, Jonny. I'm a lot angrier than he is, believe me. Anyways, what happened with Ed?"

"Well, Ed hasn't changed that much, actually. He's gotten a lot taller, and he's about six seven, from what I would say. Anyways, he's gotten better with his schooling, somewhat. He helps Eddy with some scams, but he doesn't like to. He's grown out his hair a little bit longer, and has gotten over his fear of girls, but I'll tell you more about that later. Anyways, he was devastated when you left, and locked himself in his room for at least a week, maybe two. Anyways, he still misses you, but he seems to have gotten over it." After hearing about this, my heart changed moods yet again to one of joy and sadness. I was sad that I put Ed through what I did, but I was happy that he had gotten over his fear of girls, and it seems Jonny has a story for later. _I can't wait to hear this one_ I thought to myself.

"So, what about everyone else? Jimmy, Sarah, Kevin, Rolf?" I asked, wondering about their stories.

"Well, sit back. This is going to be long. Rolf got older, but he has probably changed the least, although you probably won't find him anywhere here because he moved back with his family to his home country about a year ago. Rolf felt really guilty when he heard you were innocent, but when he was moving he didn't think too much back on that. Anyways, some of us keep in touch with him, and he says, he's glad to be back where he belongs. I have to say, I was happy for him."

"Jimmy and Sarah have become freshmen this year, and they seem to be doing well. They haven't gotten together like I thought they would have, but they are still really good friends. Jimmy has gotten his headgear off, and his teeth are surprisingly straight, and he is really fashionable, although he is kind of snobbish. He seems to be doing really well, and even though he has had several girls try to hit on him, he still seems to have a thing for Sarah."

"Sarah, on the other hand, has gotten a little less rough, especially with her brother. She has also become stylish thanks to Jimmy, and she has let her hair down the same as before. She's matured mentally, and had become less of an ass, frankly. She seems to be doing well off on her own, although some of us in the cul-de-sac are just waiting for her to notice that Jimmy is interested in her."

"Jimmy wasn't affected too badly when he heard that you left, although he was scared you had died. After a year of believing you had died, he started to believe that you had moved, although he still thinks you might be dead. Sarah on the other hand, well, she was an emotional wreck. You know that she liked you, but when she heard that you were planning the scams, she lost trust in you. Anyways, you left and she became angry at you, then heard you were innocent, and felt sad, guilty, mad at Eddy and you, and pretty much any emotion you could imagine, she was feeling it."

"Damn, I didn't think that I could affect people that bad…" I spoke softly, more to myself than to Jonny, but he caught it.

"I hate to tell you, Double D, but it gets worse."

"Aw, shit." I said, worrying about what was next.

"Kevin started dating Nazz after you left, and after he heard you left, he didn't care at all, considering he was tricked into thinking that you caused the scams. When he heard that you were innocent, he felt guilty for bullying you, and really wished he could take it back. Anyways, after about a year of dating, Kevin cheated on Nazz, and as you know, she beat him to the ground after that. He was seen as an ass throughout the entire high school, but eventually that passed over him, and he became a good football and baseball player. He gets attention from girls, but they still stay wary of him because of the whole incident with Nazz. Anyways, he's become really athletic, although not the best on football or baseball, as some of us expected. He still can be a jerk, but he's become less of one."

All of this information was a lot to take in, but there were others who I forgot to ask about. They were the ones who I had no idea about. Before I asked about them, I took on all the information that I had just been given. I was slightly nervous about the next question I was going to ask, but I asked anyways.

"What about…the Kankers?" Jonny's face got serious, and a little nervous before replying.

"Are you sure you want to hear about them now? I mean, you've gotten a lot of information already, I think you should just take it all in for now. I can tell you tomorrow." He started shuffling around, and looked like he wanted to get out of my house, but I wasn't going to let Jonny get away yet.

"It's that bad?" When I asked the question, Jonny just looked at me, a little guilty for some reason, and nodded his head. _Oh, fuck. Do I really want to hear this? Is it worth it?_ I thought about the answer to my question, and decided to answer it going both directions.

"I'm gonna get some water and…think for a few minutes. I'll ask about them in a few minutes. You need anything Jonny?" I said as I stood up. He shook his head no, so I walked over to the kitchen, got my glass, and filled it with water. I only drank a sip, thinking over the changes I had missed while I was away. Then a very important question came into my head, and I was afraid to ask it.

"Jonny," I said as I poked my head around the corner to see him. "are the cul-de-sac kids still…together? Like a group of friends, or have they all split up?"

"They all kind of…went their own separate ways. Sure, some of us are still friends, but we're no longer the inseparable group of friends you left four years ago."

I said nothing and went back into the kitchen. Tears were trying to push their way out of my eyes. After I left, everyone broke apart. _I couldn't have been the person to hold everyone together. I couldn't have been the person to start this all. Everything has changed. Why did it all go wrong? Why did I have to be back?_ As I thought of these questions my hands had become shaky, and I had to put down the glass of water so that I wouldn't spill it. I slid down the cabinet door and sat down with my knees pulled up to my chest. I rested my head on my knees, and sat there, wondering and asking about my horrible predicament. I didn't want to come back in the first place, and now, I really didn't want to be back.

After a couple minutes thinking to myself, Jonny walked in, and said, "You know Double D, I really think I should tell you tomorrow, or some other day."

"No, Jonny. I'd rather have it all hit me at once than to have it sprinkled throughout the entire week." My voice was shaky as I said this, and it sounded quite obvious that I had started to cry. I never thought that everything would change as much as it had. This small town that I had lived in, had memories in, and made friends in, had become corrupted, and was ripped apart from the inside.

"Well, when you're ready come back out here. I really think you're going to regret hearing this, though. I really want you to prepare yourself." I took Jonnys warning, and sat in the kitchen for a few more minutes to calm myself before I went back out and sat back down on the couch. I was ready to hear what was apparently the worst news.

"Are you sure? You can seriously take some time if you nee-"

"Don't worry, Jonny. I want this to be over with. Please, just tell me so I know what to expect when I go to school after the break." I knew that I probably was going to regret this, and I tried to get myself ready for after he left and I would be alone with my thoughts. I just wanted to get everything over with so I could be done with it.

"Well, I guess I should start with the good news first. I'm guessing you want to delay the bad stuff, so I'll move on. Anyways, May has been the only one of the Kanker sisters to take a good turn. She has grown up, although she is the shortest of the Kankers. She is a really fast runner, and has actually gotten an athletic scholarship already. She is a better sprinter than anything, and we actually call her the 'Blitz Bunny' because of how fast she is. She's gotten a scholarship already, and from what I've heard, schools are competing for her."

"She's gotten pretty cute, and guys are crowding around her. She's become a good friend to a lot of people, and to almost everyone in the cul-de-sac except Eddy. Also, there's some news I think you would like to hear about her. She and Ed have become friends. Once Ed got over his fear of girls was around the time May stopped chasing after Ed, and they hit it off at some point. Ed got her interested in comics and scary stories, movies, and other things of the sort. I think May is wanting to go out with Ed, and she keeps trying to drop hints, but you know Ed. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, Ed is actually trying to become an artist for comic books, and I have to say, he's really good!" My heart jumped up at this news. I was so glad for Ed and how he and May hit it off, and now Ed was becoming an artist! These were the changes I wanted to happen here, not everything else. But as soon as my heart was lifted, the pit in my stomach reformed, knowing that there were two more sisters to hear about.

"Alright, that's…awesome. I'm really proud for Ed, but what about the other two?"

"I'll talk about Lee, I guess. She's gotten a little worse, and even though she's a senior, she won't stop bugging Eddy. I'm not sure if she still likes him or not, but she keeps pestering him, messing with him, pranking him, and embarrassing him. He gets annoyed to no end, but that doesn't stop her. She wears her hair back now, and you can see her eyes, but she still has a reputation for being tough. I don't mind that much, she only picks on Eddy." A small silence filled the room, and I could tell he was done talking about Lee. I was hesitant, but finally asked about Marie.

"What about Marie? What happened after I left?"

"Are you sure you want to hear about her? I mean, you can take som-"

"No, Jesus, Jonny, just tell me. I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

"Alright," he said with a sigh. "Marie has definitely…changed. She's been really bad, Double D. After you left, she was found crying. People made fun of her, a Kanker crying, and that just made the situation even worse. After a month or two of being depressed, she snapped. It was as if her whole mind just changed all at once. She beat down some kid at school for making fun of her so bad that the kid had to get stitches. After that she's been the schools worst bully. She gets in trouble a lot, and everyone is intimidated by her. Another thing that's made it worse was May. While Marie was proud of her and her achievements, she felt like nothing compared to her sister. She just seems so, I don't know, different. And in a bad way. Anyways, guys like her for her looks, but they can't actually get with her. I mean, she's been on 'dates,' but nothing that I would actually consider dating. Either way, she's a lot worse than when you left. She misses you, and I think she still does, Double D. That's about all that I can tell you, but if you want me to stay around some more I can." I thought about it for a minute, but eventually replied.

"No, Jonny, you can go if you want. Just please don't tell anyone. I still don't want to be noticed. Thanks man, I appreciate you coming over."

"No problem. I still can't believe you're back, I guess it hasn't hit me yet. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone, I promise." He says as he gets up from the chair he was in.

"Well, I know I can trust you. That's why I let you in my house and told you that I was who I am." I got up and led him to the door, and he walked away. I closed the door, and walked in shock at everything I had just been told. I had felt every emotion I could have in that amount of time. I couldn't believe that Marie actually liked me. I wasn't surprised that Ed had been devastated when I left, but Marie? I didn't know she liked me at all, I always thought she was just messing with me, and had fun bullying me, making me uncomfortable and embarrassed.

"I had no idea…" I spoke in a small voice to myself. "…that so much would change." I went into my bedroom and sat on my bed, thinking and processing everything I had been told. All of this news surprised me, and everyone who I thought wouldn't change had, and in a catastrophic way. _Well, Nazz and Kevin aren't together like you had hoped,_ I thought, and chuckled to myself. I sat there and thought about how everyone was, but I kept coming back to Marie. I felt bad for her, and how I didn't know that she cared for me. I got out my iPod and put the earbuds in my ears and looked for a particular song. I found it, and played it. It was Sub. Sound-Start Again, and it was the perfect song for what I was feeling.

 _I wake up looking in the mirror,_

 _Wondering who is looking back._

 _I'm so lost with myself,_

 _I just can't understand._

 _I say one thing and then do another,_

 _My life is set without a plan._

 _If only I could live for the future,_

 _Instead of living in the now._

 _Woa-a-ah, let's go back,_

 _And try and do it right._

 _Who said we can't,_

 _Let's make the time to work it out._

 _I know that I can do better with the help from someone who knows_

 _Just what went wrong_

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _Let's start again._

These words were exactly what was going on through my head, and I thought about all of the bad things that had happened since I left. I wish I could go back to when everyone was still friends and when everyone was doing fine. Everything changed since I was gone. Everything changed for the worse.

 _My innocence has left me blind,_

 _Blind from what is right_

 _And now I've fallen in a state of mind_

 _If only this is something I could fight_

 _I try my best to put things right_

 _But it's easier said than done_

 _I need to reconstruct my mind_

 _Start again and put the pieces back to one_

 _Woa-a-ah, let's go back,_

 _And try to do things right_

 _Who said we can't_

 _Let's make the time to work it out_

 _I know that I can do it better with the help from someone who knows_

 _Just what went wrong_

 _Let's start again._

As much as I would love to start again, it's impossible. As much as I would love things to go back to normal, it's impossible. This isn't a fairy tale, and this isn't something that can just magically go back to normal. This is my past, my present, and my future, all in one. I was afraid for the future, and as I thought of all of this, tears formed in my eyes and rolled down the side of my face. This wasn't helped when the next song came on. It was Oskar Schuster-Fjarlægur. It was a beautiful song, and with no lyrics, it gave me time to think and feel everything. I knew that these next few months were going to be hell, and while I had tried to ignore my past, I was now right in the middle of it.

I had thought that when I entered back into Peach Creek that I wouldn't care about everyone else who I was once friends with. Now, they were the only people I could think about. Oh, how I wished I could change things. How I wish I could just leave this place and go back to New York. How I wish I hadn't heard about everyone here. How I wish I could go back to being so innocent and naïve. Oh, how I wish.

I sat there for the next hour, thinking and stewing over everything that had been told to me. Things had changed. I had changed. Everyone and everything had changed. How could I go back and not expect things to be different? Oh, how foolish of me. I had felt about every feeling there was today, and I couldn't take much more. I cried, and eventually stopped, but I was tired, and fell asleep. I awoke two hours later, and resumed with my normal daily tasks, but I could never get everyone out of my head. As I went to sleep, I now knew how everyone had changed. As I fell asleep for the night, one line from the song entered my head.

 _Let's start again…_

 **A.N: A lot of information in this one! Some character development ideas go to DMan51, and many thanks to him. As always, I love reviews, so bring them in! Even though I don't like the use of song lyrics in stories, I felt that this one fit extremely well, so I like it. Songs: Sub. Sound -Start Again; Oskar Schuster-Fjarlægur. Thank you all for reading, this chapter took a lot! If I happened to make a mistake, please tell me! I want to make this story as enjoyable as possible, so tell me of any mistakes!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A.N: I'm back with another chapter in this wondrous story of a new beginning! As you know, the last chapter was intense, and lots of character developments were made, so I got some reviews about them. I just wanted to tell you all that I can't make everyone happy, so if there's disappointment, I most likely won't change my story around unless I want to. Don't worry, all the reviews were nice, and no one was complaining, I just wanted to get that out there. And don't worry, I'm not planning on leaving or abandoning this story soon, so keep calm! Alright, I'm done with my rant. ON TO THE STORY!**

I awake to find that I had slept with my clothes on from the day before. And that it was almost completely dark. And I wasn't under the covers. _What the heck? What happened?_ I looked around, and finally looked at my alarm clock. It took me a second to focus on it, but I saw that it read 3:27. _Oh, great. I wake up in the middle of the night. Fun._ I could tell it was in the morning because there was no light coming into my room. I switched on the lamp on the desk next to me and got up. I was still tired, but I wanted to get comfortable, so I slipped off my clothes, put on my pajamas and got under the covers. I switched the light back off and dozed back to sleep.

. . . .

I woke back up at 7 o'clock, and decided to get up. I had gone to sleep at around 8:30, so it was starting to come up around 12 hours I would have been asleep. I put on some clothes, some dark blue jeans with a red and black plaid long sleeve button-up, and then walked out to the bathroom. As I got everything in order and tried to get my morning routines completed, I thought as to why I fell asleep so early. That's when I remembered what had happened yesterday, and I wondered and hoped that I had dreamt it all. As I thought more about it, I realized that it wasn't a dream, nor an imaginative thought, but it actually happened. I still wasn't sure, but I shoved it out of my head long enough for me to finish my morning routines.

I brushed my hair and put on my beanie, with some of my jet black hair sticking out. Now, even if it may not be your number one priority to know what I hide under my beanie, but I guess I can tell you now. I'm slightly more open to it than when I was younger, but I still don't like to show what's under it. I hide a four inch scar that runs along the right side of my head. I got it when I was young, around four years old. From what I have been told and what little memory I have of it, I was climbing on the top of the couch in our living room in our old house, and I fell, slicing my head on the corner of an end table. Unfortunately, it left a scar, and the hair won't grow back there, but luckily it's only a small part and I can cover it up easily with how long my hair is now. I was so self-conscious about it because Eddy thought it wasn't an "interesting story" of how I got it, and would make fun of me for it. Now I realize just how much of a dick he was. I'm still sensitive about it because it makes me feel…tarnished, I guess. I never really felt too open about it, but hey, now I'm telling all of you, so I guess I'm more open about it than before.

I got done with my morning routine, so I decided to sit down in my living room and think back to everything that was told to me yesterday. As I thought, reminiscing about yesterday's events and information, I remembered a lot of the things that were told to me. Everything about all of my old friends, enemies, and other acquaintances. I remembered Ed, Eddy, Nazz, Kevin, and Marie. Those were the people who shocked me the most, and who I also didn't want to see the most. I didn't want to see any of my old friends in the first place, but they were the ones who were going to recognize me first, try to beat me into a pulp, or both. Well, except Ed, hopefully. Jonny was the only person I could trust to keep my secret, so I guess it was a blessing that he's the one to find me first. I knew that I would have to go see him again, so that I could tell him more information about my past four years and that he could tell me more about Peach Creek. I knew he was leaving some stuff out, if he didn't it would have been way too much information for me to process. Even if I wanted to know more, I would go talk to him on Monday, and leave him alone for the weekend.

I went and made myself breakfast as I was starving. I forgot to make myself dinner yesterday, but that wasn't on my mind at all yesterday. I wasn't sure if I had processed it all yet, or if I was just feeling calm because it hadn't all hit me. I guessed I was just pushing it into the back of my mind, hoping that it wouldn't be true. I didn't dwell on it for long, and ate my breakfast. As I sat down, I realized that I didn't pick up the paper, and, with a sigh, I walked outside and picked up the newspaper that was right on our porch step. I saw that it either rained or snowed lightly during the night, as the ground was slightly damp. I had to admit, I loved being back in Peach Creek, except for my history here. If I was someone who hadn't been here before I would love this place. It was beautiful, and I loved that all the seasons seemed distinct from one another, where as in other places there is just winter and summer. I love how in the summer here it is warm, sunny and clear, and in the winter there's snow and rain. Then there's fall, when the trees become canvases for the red and orange colors of nature, while in spring, the flowers bloom out when the spring showers fall upon their petals. As for me, though, as long as I don't run into my friends, I will be enjoying it here.

I walked back into my house, into the kitchen, and took out the newspaper. I read the normal news, first local (where nothing interesting was happening), then national, and finally, worldwide. Nothing caught my attention, and when I was finished with my breakfast, I cleaned my bowl out and put it in the dishwasher. When I got my breakfast, I had noticed that I still forgot to shop for the necessities. I tried to see if I could get out of it, but then saw that I would have to go shopping. Luckily there wasn't many items to pick up, but they all would have been bad had I dropped them when coming back from the store. Milk, eggs, flour, rice, and anything else I wanted to get to make myself food. I don't recall saying it before, but I'm a good cook. I had to be as my parents always were out, so they left cooking up to me. They always seem to make their own food when they have to, so I would like to think that they are great cooks, but I haven't had meals with them all too often.

I was thinking about going to the store, but it was still early, so I decided to work on the song I had on my computer. I worked with that, trying to find the sounds that wouldn't clash with the rest of the song, adding onto it little by little, and making it harmonize better. I worked on it for about an hour, adding only a small bit onto it, but every other sound clashed, and it would sound out of place, but I finally found one sound that worked, put in the notes that worked, and finally added more to the song. Even if it was just a small part to the song, it still felt nice to get some work done. It was now 8:30, but I still didn't want to go just yet. I decided I would go around ten, maybe I would avoid lots of people, as Saturdays tended to be busy for stores.

I passed the time doing chores around the house and other stuff. I got my backpack, as this would be what would hold the groceries I couldn't carry on my bike. _This would be so much easier with a car!_ I screamed mentally. I wondered if and when I would drop something, but I wanted to see if I could avoid that. I looked around and looked for a small basket that could fit on my bike. Eventually, I found one that I thought might be able to work on my bike, and went out to see if it would fit. It fit, so I decided to build a little holder on my bike for the basket. I finished, and now I had more room to put groceries, and they would be a lot more stable.

I rode my bike to the store, got the groceries, went back out to my bike, and put all of my groceries to the places they would be held on my bike. As I was riding home, I passed by the old construction site and finally took notice of it. It was just how I had left it, an unfinished construction site. Most of the equipment had been moved, and I noticed a for sale sign out front that had obviously been up for far too long. I never knew what they planned to put there, but whatever it was, it didn't work out. I turned onto my street and saw a girl who I assumed was around my age walking on the street opposite to my house. I went onto my side of the street, and I happened to glance over at her, and saw her giving me a smirk. I had seen that smirk before, and it was on girls who saw me as eye candy. I still found it funny that girls found me cute, and I guess I never really saw it in myself, but I was considered cute, so that was a plus. I gave her a grin and looked back to the street and turned into my driveway. I opened the garage door and rode my bike in, getting the groceries out of the makeshift basket and then walking into my house.

I put the groceries in their right spots, and when I was done with that, I wondered what I should do for free time. I still didn't want to think about what I would have to face when I got to school. I hoped that I wouldn't have any classes with anyone I knew, but if I did, I would have to lay low. I really didn't know what would happen if someone found out that I was back, and I really didn't want to find out either. I hoped that Jonny was right, and that I wasn't that easily recognizable, because if I was, my act would go flying out the window when someone saw me. I decided that I would make myself a simple lunch of mac-and-cheese. Maybe after that I would ride my bike around. _Yeah, that sounds like a good plan. Get my head out of all this change, and look around town._

After I ate my lunch I hopped back on my bike and took it outside. I rode around and felt the cold nipping at my ears as I rode in no general direction. I remembered the candy shop and how I never visited it after my sushi lunch, so I decided to give it a visit. I rode over to the shop and locked up my bike outside. I walked in and looked around. I saw that not much had changed after these four years. They still had the same style store, the same candy for the most part, and right near the back I saw what I was looking for: the jawbreakers. I don't know how this store always managed to get the best jawbreakers, but they always did. I went to the back and payed for one. When I popped it into my mouth, I was reminded of all the good memories of when scams ended well for Ed, Eddy and I. I was also reminded of how much simpler it was at that point in time and thought about how nice it would be to go back to that time. All in the sweet taste of a jawbreaker.

I rode around again, this time wondering if the junkyard had changed at all. Even if it stunk, it was a nice hangout spot where you could just look at all the random junk people throw out, including the van that we used to hang out in to talk about scams, plans, and other things. That's when I remembered how close the trailer park was to the junkyard, and how the Kankers would hang out at the junkyard as well. I decided to be careful in there and try not to be seen if there was a Kanker in there, and then book it as soon as I could. I also wondered if I would recognize them if I saw one of them because Jonny's description wasn't the best.

I made my way to the junkyard, and I found that the piles were definitely taller than before, but I was still unsure if they had or hadn't cleaned it out. I rode my bike around slowly, as to make sure I didn't fall down on anything protruding from the ground. I tried to recall where the van was, and after a few minutes of searching, I came across it. It had looked different than what I remember, and it had become weathered by the elements. It was rusted, paint chipping off, and quite a few dents in it. Junk had been piled on top of it, but it still stuck out and could be seen easily. I wondered if the inside was still the same as before, but as I opened the rear doors, everything was stripped from it. Springs and other items were strewn around in it, obviously from the seats and other things that had been taken out. _Well, I guess I won't be hanging around in here anymore._

As I looked around more, my thoughts turned to the trailer park, which could probably be seen if you climbed up high enough. I thought against it, fearing I would be seen, but as I kept walking around, my curiosity grew. Eventually, my curiosity grew to be too much, and I decided to try and find a pile of trash to climb up. I found the area where the trailer park was closest to the junkyard and found a pile that would work well. I tried to get holds and climb up, but the task proved to be harder than what I once thought.

Eventually, I got to a point where I could see the trailer park, and how little it had changed. I couldn't quite see the Kankers trailer from this height, so I climbed up a little farther. After a few more feet, I could see the blue trailer, but that was about it. I didn't know what I expected to find when I looked at their trailer, but all I ended up seeing was the back of the trailer that was the home of my former enemy. As I remembered what they did to me and the other two Ed's, I couldn't help but feel a little strange about how things had changed. Ed and May had become friends, Lee and Eddy are still bitter enemies, and Marie…had no one really. I got that feeling again of sadness and guilt. I never really thought that she cared about me, but she did. _Ugh, will I ever get over this? I don't want to talk to her and tell her sorry, but I feel so bad about it? How do I do this?_ I thought about it for a minute, and then realized I was still on the pile of trash. I started to descend, but out of nowhere, my left foot slipped out from under me. I gripped hard with my hands onto whatever I was holding to keep myself from falling, and succeeded. But when I did this, I felt a pain in my right hand. I got down and inspected my hand to find a large but shallow cut that ran across my palm.

"Goddamn it. Now I gotta ride home with this?" I said under my breath. It stung, and had started to bleed, so I hopped on my bike and rode back home. I got back after spilling blood all over my handlebars and on my jeans, and cleaned the wound. I didn't know what I had cut it on, but I wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to get sick and die because I cut myself while I was spying on the Kankers. I bandaged it up and decided to not go out for the rest of the day. I sat in my living room and watched TV for the next hour or so. Even if I was watching the TV, I was still thinking about Marie and what grief I had caused her. I felt guilty, and I knew this guilt would only go away once I said sorry, or once I saw her truly happy. Ruling out the latter as a possibility based on what Jonny told me, I knew that I would have to make it up to Marie somehow. Oh, but how I would regret that day, because I knew that if she knew, she would be bound to spill the word. My whole mind was confused, and I didn't know what to do, but I knew that I would still feel guilty, and that these next few months really were going to be hell.

 **A.N: So, now we know what's under Edds hat. I like the scar theory because you can go so many directions with it, and create other drama with it, if you know what I'm saying. Anyways, this chapter was mostly filler, and it wasn't the best I've written, but hey, at least it's just filler, right? Either way, the next chapter should have more than filler and have more story, so stay tuned! As always, I love reviews, and if you notice any mistakes, please notify me. I want to make this story as good as possible!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A.N: Alright, this chapter should be more information and less of a filler, although time should move a little quicker from here until school resumes for the characters. Some darker topics may be discussed in this chapter, and if you feel like committing suicide or self-harm, don't. You mean more to people than you realize. I have friends who have gone through or are going through this now, and they mean a lot to me. Anyways, I won't go into details, but you get what I'm saying. Anyways, now we shall journey into the next chapter!**

I woke up Monday morning, around 9:15, and completed my morning routine as always. Sunday had been uneventful, mostly working on music, watching TV, thinking about the cul-de-sac, and I went out to the park to hit some baseballs. Other than that, nothing new had happened. I didn't see anyone (thank God), I didn't slice my hand open like Saturday, I didn't spy on anyone, I just had a normal day.

When I got out to the living room, I heard something. A gentle tapping, a familiar sound: rain. I loved rain, and I always loved everything about it. I loved watching it outside, snuggled in a blanket, yet, I also loved being outside in it, getting soaked and having the rain fall upon my beanie. I wished that I wasn't so self-conscious about that scar, because then I would feel the raindrops on my hair and head. I opened the blinds and looked out to see that it was raining gently, and not quite storming. The perfect weather to walk around in. Others hate the rain, they hate walking around in it, getting soaked, but I love it. I can't explain the feeling I get when I do, but it feels right to do so. As I thought about the rain, I thought about how I was planning to go visit Jonny today. It occurred to me that I had actually never come across the cul-de-sac yet. Strange, seeing as how that was where I lived for several years, that it would be the last place I visited. I lived a couple streets over from the cul-de-sac right now, so it wouldn't be a far walk. I decided to walk over to the cul-de-sac after I ate breakfast and check it out.

I ate my cereal, and I was glad I had picked up milk on Saturday, otherwise I would have to eat my cereal dry. After I finished, I went back to my room to put on some clothes to walk in. I chose a long sleeve shirt that I never really liked and put it on over my undershirt. After, I placed on my black hoodie with a red 'Shurk' logo on it. _This should keep me warm,_ I thought, thinking about how cold it would probably be outside. After I did other chores that needed to get done, I got my key and walked outside. I locked up the house, and decided to walk and check out the cul-de-sac. I didn't expect it to change that much, considering I wouldn't think houses could change as fast as people.

The rain had lightened up a bit, and I was a little glad for that, considering the temperature was chilly, to say the least. I was on my porch, and took a step out into the rain. When the drops hit me and my face, I smiled. Normally, I could find the words to describe exactly what was going on, but this was something unique that I couldn't explain. Not many things can do this to me, but this was one of them, and this was one of the things I found great joy in. I started my walk to the cul-de-sac with less fear than I would have on a normal day. I knew that most of the kids in the cul-de-sac wouldn't be out in the rain, as they never liked it, and to them, there wasn't anything to do when it rained. I was the different one, I guess, but I was fine with it.

I walked in the rain, enjoying every second of the splashing of my feet, the sound of rain, the feeling of the water drops. As I walked closer and closer to the cul-de-sac, thoughts came creeping into my head. I knew that if someone recognized me in there, everything would come crashing down. I knew that as soon as someone noticed I was back, the whole cul-de-sac would hear in a minute. My fears were quelled by the rain, and by the lies I could tell them. I knew that it was bound to come out at some point, but I already had lies going so I could cover this up for a little longer. I just didn't know how long.

After a few more minutes, I reached the corner to turn into the cul-de-sac. I could see my old house, the house we sold to family friends. That's why there was never a for sale sign out front, we sold it to our friends and didn't have to go through a real estate agent. That I was glad for, as no one would notice that I was moving. I turned the corner, and slowed my pace. I almost stopped, and looked around, feeling quite nostalgic at the sight of the old cul-de-sac. As expected, nothing seemed to have changed. I didn't see anything that looked like a change, besides the color change on my old house. I walked around, looking at each house without seeming too suspicious. I was walking on enemy territory at this point, and a little fearful for being caught, I picked up my pace ever so slightly. I pointed out Jonny's house, and knew that that was where I was going to have to go later today. As I was nearing the top of the cul-de-sac, I heard something, a door opening,

"Hey!" A female voice shouted. My blood ran cold, and I didn't want to look behind to see who it was. Judging from the direction it came from, it sounded like it came from Ed's house. _Oh, god, I hope that's his mom shouting to someone else,_ I thought as I quickened my pace.

"Hey! You, in the black jacket!" I turned slowly, trying to keep my face hidden as much as I could behind my hood. I look and see who I could only assume was Sarah. _I thought the voice sounded familiar._ Sarah was wearing a turquoise hoodie, with white edging around the zipper and white hood laces. She had her hood off, with her hair falling down to the middle of her back. She was also wearing what looked to be black leggings, strange for how chilly it was. I could see how much she had changed, and it surprised me. She was no longer the annoying little sister of one of my friends, although she was still little. Even her voice sounded less shrill. As I stood in the rain, looking at how much a familiar face had changed, she looked at me with a strange look, before asking something I almost missed.

"Do you need a ride somewhere?"

"Oh, uh, no. I'm good." I replied, and I started to turn to walk away.

"You looked soaked. Where is your house from here?"

"What's your name?" I retorted, seeing if this was actually Sarah, and not someone else that happened to be at Ed's house.

"I asked my question first."

"And my question is more important." Alright, now we're starting on a little bit of a snarky conversation.

"Well, I won't answer your question until you answer mine." I didn't want to answer her question, as I didn't want her looking for me later.

"Well then, looks like we both won't be getting our questions answered." I looked at her face turn into surprise that I was able to match her response. I turned and started walking away.

"Hold on, let me get an umbrella." _Oh, she better not be thinking about coming out here with me,_ I thought as I heard her close the front door. But just in case, I sprinted across the cul-de-sac, and back onto my own street before she had the chance to come out and talk to me. I made it back inside my own house and took off my shoes. They were soaked after my short escapade to the cul-de-sac and back, and I didn't want to get water on the carpet. _Whew, that was close._

After an hour or two of messing around, eating lunch, and planning what to have for dinner, I decided that I should go out and see if Jonny was home. I got my shoes back on and walked outside. I saw that the rain had picked up since I was last out, but that wouldn't bother me. As I've said before, I love the rain.

I walked over to Jonny's house, and I hoped that Sarah wasn't around still. I don't know how she saw I was out in the rain, unless she was looking out of the window at the right time. Either way, I hope that an encounter like that wouldn't happen again. I walked back over to the cul-de-sac and headed to Jonny's house. I wanted to know more, more about what to expect, as school would resume in less than a week. _Now that I think of it, I still haven't gotten my schedule. I should check the mail today. Hope it's in there._ I walked onto the porch of Jonny's house and knocked on the door. After a few seconds I heard someone walk to the door and open it. Jonny stood in the doorway, wrapped up in a dark blue blanket and wearing some slippers. I wondered for a second if he had just woken up, but then thought that that would be unlikely. He invited me in, and I stepped inside. He told me to sit in the room directly to the left of the entryway after I took off my shoes.

"Do you need anything? A drink, blanket, something to make you comfortable?" Even if it seemed Jonny didn't have a lot of house guests, he sure knew how to be a good host.

"Um, I'll take just a water, thanks."

"Are you sure you don't need alcohol to get through this, Double D?" I looked at him with a little shock, but he added quickly, "Don't worry, I'm just kidding." He walked away to the kitchen and I sat on the couch.

Jonny came back with two glasses of water, and took a seat on the other end of the couch.

"So," I started to ask, "who should start with their other tales first?"

"You know, I didn't hear many stories about you. All I know is that you're back from New York, but I didn't hear much about your life over there. Tell me more."

"Alright, I can tell you some details and some stories. So, when I got over there, I moved into a house around the outer edge of the major city. We got everything moved in, and I did whatever for the next month I was there. Anyways, I made friends, some I'm still friends with, others have come and gone. I got involved with lots of other hobbies, like working on machines and cars every so often. I got involved with urban exploring when I was in freshmen year, when one of my friends got me along with some others involved. Now, at that time, they took us to an abandoned warehouse area that was out in the middle of nowhere. He said that there was no major danger, as there probably wouldn't be anyone in there squatting, but that he would get in a lot of trouble if he was caught with me in the group. He said he might be arrested for endangering a youth. I said I wouldn't get caught, and I didn't."

"After that, I got really interested in urbexing. I tried to go on other explorations, but the real stuff wasn't until a year later. When I could drive in my own, I tried to find places that were abandoned, and in New York, there were many places. I once found an abandoned mall site, and I decided to check that place out. That wasn't my lucky day, though, and the police came up and luckily let me go with a warning. I still haven't been arrested, but I've been warned about three times. I can't wait for the day that I'm actually taken back in a police car and see my parents' reaction. I'm sure they'd freak. Anyways, I think the best was when I got my friend out of being taken back to the station."

"What happened was that me and four other friends went to explore an abandoned bowling alley, but one of our friends brought a knife just in case we ran into anyone. If you don't know, bringing a weapon is a big problem in urbexing, because it goes from trespassing to having a weapon with you, and possibly an intent to harm. At the time, we didn't know he had it, and at some point the cops showed up, and they weren't too happy. They searched our bags, which doesn't normally happen when you're caught. They found the knife in his camera case, and they wanted to get him arrested at this point, but I hopped in and tried to save my friend from his fate."

"My lie went something like this: He wasn't going to use the knife to harm anyone, as it was way too far in his case to take out fast enough to hurt anyone. The cops then suggested that he may have been trying to steal copper, to which I replied that we were only taking pictures and videos, and that we didn't need to steal copper to make money, and that we had jobs at the time. Well, most of us. I didn't have one at the time, but the lie worked in the end. They let us go with a strong warning, and I think they put something on my friends record that says he's been warned about carrying a knife on private property."

"Another thing I've been involved with is music. You knew that I played the pedal steel guitar, right? Well, last year I started to play the guitar, and I've become somewhat good at it. I also make music on my computer, and I really like doing it. It's a lot of fun, and even if I don't get recognized, I don't care. I like making music, but I can't sing for shit, haha!" He chuckled as I laughed, as I knew much better than him how I sang. I'm not the worst, but there are only a few songs that I can actually sing reasonably well. Other than those, I sound horrible, but I've also never sung in front of anyone, so I've never gotten anyone else's opinion.

"Wow, you really have done a lot with your time! I'm happy for you." Jonny said, breaking his silence.

"Thanks, but that's not all I've done. Now, I won't be doing anything right now, but I can breakdance. I learned in my freshman year, and I've been practicing ever since. I'm not sure about any other stories I could tell you about, so I guess you should tell me more about here." I closed, wanting to know more about the place I once knew.

"I can tell you more. Now, do you want to hear about anyone first?"

"Just go with what you want. I heard all of the surprising parts about everyone so far, unless you held some stuff back from me."

"Well, I may have held some things back from you, Double D, but nothing too major, just…slightly surprising." _Well, I would count that as surprising, Jonny_ I thought.

"Alright, let me hear about, Eddy. What kind of trouble has he gotten himself into?"

"Eddy keeps trying to scam people from other schools, but he isn't too successful. He hasn't gotten a job, and he's gotten caught by the police several times. His scams have gotten more complex, but in the end they don't seem to work very well. He manages to make money though, even if he doesn't have a job. From what I know, his parents keep trying to stop him from doing what he does and not end up like his brother. He doesn't listen to them though, and just keeps doing the scams. All of us don't trust him anymore, and Kevin and Marie have bullied him for it, and the rest of us just don't even bother with him. He's just becoming a mess, and all of us think he's gonna end up being jobless and horrible like his brother."

"Ed on the other hand has been doing well with his life. As I told you, he's getting recognized for his art, but he's still looking for a job with a comic series. He's gotten smarter, or at least smarter for him, and he's become friends with May. Eddy didn't like that, but eventually he wondered if he could use her for scams, but she declined, and even if Eddy kept pestering, she wouldn't help him. Ed's got glasses now, and even if he does help Eddy with some scams, Ed himself hasn't gotten in trouble. Ed is starting to stop with the scams, and soon it will just be Eddy. After you left, Eddy's scams just completely fell apart, and didn't work as well. Either way, Ed has become a lot better, and has a lot of friends because of how loveable he is."

"Kevin hasn't changed that much from when you left, he still can be an ass, but I think he's become friendlier, if it is just by a little. Nazz, well, I told you about her. She's more…cynical, I guess. She is meaner, and a lot less accepting of people. I think that she's climbing out of it though, because she's become friendlier to people, although still a little wary of them."

"Jimmy and Sarah started their freshmen years this year, as you already know. They still haven't gotten together, even after everything that they have gone through, and we are all a little upset about that. There isn't much else I can tell you about them, as last time I saw you, I pretty much told you everything."

"There really isn't much to tell you about Double D, I know I must sound like I'm just repeating everything, but there really hasn't been much else to tell you about. There are a few more things, but I don't want to tell you Double D, really, I don't want you to hear some of these things." Jonny's tone caught me off guard, as he actually sounded worried and a little fearful. I didn't want to pry, but I also wanted to hear what it was.

"Alright, I won't pry, but I want to hear. Also, if you don't mind, start calling me Daniel. I don't want you to call me by my nickname and have someone else hear it."

"So, why did you change your name again? I think you've told me, but I just don't remember." I could tell Jonny was trying to change the subject, but I wasn't going to pry. I told him about the fact I didn't want to be associated with this place again, and that I've liked the name Daniel, and said that it would have been the name I would have chosen for myself.

Our conversation turned into a lot of story-telling, about our lives and the lives of others. He told me stories of Eddy getting caught by the police, and I told him more about my explorations and urbexing. He told me about the cul-de-sac, and all of the good and bad memories about it. I told him about my friends and my experience with a new school. I also told him about my experience with girls wanting to go out with me, always giving me looks, but yet managed to never go on an actual date. The reason for that was because I saw that they only liked me for my looks, and didn't care about anything else. I guess I just hated shallow feelings. I felt that I had spent enough time over at his house, and was getting ready to leave.

"Wait, Doub-…Daniel. I should tell you what I haven't said yet." I sat back down and waited for Jonny to elaborate.

"So, there was a rumor going around after you left about how you had…killed yourself. I think I told you about that, but…Marie…now these are only rumors, but, people said that Marie was cutting herself, and some said that she was a little suicidal. Her sisters would always say that she wasn't, but people kept saying that she was. Double D, I don't want you to think that you caused this, ok? I don't want you to think that you caused so many bad things to happen, because you didn't. I personally think it was a good thing that you left, because if you didn't things would be bad, and maybe even worse. Please don't think this was your fault." Jonny's words comforted me, but I knew that Marie was sad because I left. I caused what had happened to Marie. Everyone else I don't know about, but Marie I knew for sure.

"Jonny, thanks, but this whole thing with Marie is my fault. She did like me, and even more, based on what you're telling me. I know I shouldn't feel sad, but it was my fault." I said, knowing that it was indeed my fault.

"Well, you know that she has seemed to gotten over it. You know how she snapped, right?" I nodded my head. "Well, she's kind of become a big bully. She's even feared more than Lee, believe it or not. She is just mean to a lot of people, and has a reputation for being the worst bully on campus at this point."

"I guess that's…nice to hear…" I said, a little confused that she went from being depressed to apparently one of the biggest bullies at Peach Creek High. It was bittersweet to hear how she got over me, and I was glad that she seemed to have gotten over me. After a few more minutes of sitting around, I decided that it was a good time to leave.

"Alright Daniel, be safe. Remember what I told you, you didn't do this, ok?"

"I'll remember. And thanks for calling me Daniel, Jonny." I smiled at him as he opened the door and I walked out.

"Are you sure you don't want an umbrella? It's raining pretty good."

"Nah, I'll be fine Jonny. Thanks anyway." And with that, I walked to my house. I walked across the street to get onto the sidewalk, but as I was heading over to the sidewalk, I heard a door open and close. I didn't think much of it, until I heard hurried footsteps running in my direction. _Do I dare turn to see who it is?_ I thought. Before I could, though, a voice answered me.

"What are you doing out here without an umbrella?" _Goddamn it Sarah, why do you have to do this?_

"Because I like walking in the rain." I said dryly. I still didn't look at her, but I noticed that the rain falling on my head had stopped, so I assumed that she brought an umbrella with her.

"Huh. So you never answered my question from earlier." I smirked, knowing exactly how to reply.

"And you never answered mine." I heard her sigh, and I grinned a little wider, knowing that she wasn't going to win this battle.

"Fine, my name is Sarah." She replied, and I could tell she was annoyed at how I was able to defeat her in this battle of cleverness and determination.

"Heh, you seem so disappointed to tell me. My name is Daniel, and if you want to know where I live, you can keep following me." I still hadn't faced her at this point, so I didn't know what her face looked like at this point, but I was sure it was one of annoyance.

"So why haven't I seen you around?"

"Oh, I just moved here from New York." I said, wanting to keep my answers short. I was nervous having Sarah right beside me, because she knows me. Or, knew me. Either way, I was going to try to keep myself hidden for as long as I could. I know that as soon as she knew, everyone in the cul-de-sac would know. She isn't the best at keeping secrets, so there was no way in hell I would tell her who I was.

"So then, how do you know Jonny?"

"I became friends with him after I met him when I was riding my bike home." After I said this, I realized that my story was believable. I saw that it could fool almost everyone. Almost. I knew that it wouldn't work on Ed, Eddy or Marie, as they had bonds with me that would be hard to break.

"So, how old are you?" She asked as she walked a little faster to get a look at my face. I reeled back, and while I stopped and looked at her for a quick second, I replied "16" before starting up again and turning onto my street. I walked to my house and walked up the driveway to my door. Sarah, unfortunately, followed me up to my door as I took out my keys.

"Alright, well, I guess I'll see you later." I could hear a hint of disappointment in her voice, but I didn't feel bad for her. I felt bad that she would be walking out in the rain, but the cul-de-sac wasn't a long walk away.

"Thanks" I said quite plainly before shutting the door on her. I was acting rude, but only because I knew that with enough time people would find out. I looked through the peephole to see Sarah with a look of sadness before she went off to the cul-de-sac. I put my back to the door and slid down, sitting down with my knees drawn up to me.

"How the fuck will I keep this a secret?" I said quietly to myself. I didn't know how I was going to do this, eventually people would figure out, and I shuddered at the thought, burying my face into my knees. I could only hope that I could stay low for a while. Little did I know how hard that was actually going to be.

 **A.N: I know, six chapters, over 20,000 words later, and we still haven't met Marie. Sorry, I'm one for build-up, but the next chapter will be the start of school. So we should at least see Marie in the next chapter if we don't talk to her. Also, Sarah is now involved with this story, so that could make things interesting later. Alright, in the next chapter, school starts up again, and Double D meets a few familiar faces, so I will see you next time! As always, leave a review, as I love reviews.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A.N: Alright, I'm back, and ready for more! Let's see how long this chapter is, as now it will be the first day of Peach Creek High for Edd, and quite a bit will happen in this chapter. Hopefully I'll have some time to work on this, as time has begun to become scarce lately. Don't worry, I won't abandon this, it's just that updates will probably be not as often. As always, I want to put out the best content I can, so if updates aren't as soon as you want just think of it as me taking extra time to make this the best it can. Also, to the guest who said that I should become an author and that they would buy this if it was a book, thank you! It's cool to hear something like that, and I always love reading your reviews. Alright, I'm done with my little rant, enjoy the read!**

The rest of the week went by like a blur. Sure, some interesting things happened during the week, but nothing like seeing a new face. Sarah became quite annoying, as she kept trying to find out more about me and knocking on my door, but I would always ignore her. Yeah, it was rude, but I wasn't about to have my secret get out this fast. As I've said many times before and probably many times after this point, I don't really want to see them again. Also during that week, I finally got my class schedule. I got it on Thursday, and it actually seemed like a good schedule. When I read the paper, I thought about if anyone I knew was in any of my classes. I hoped not, but I guess I wouldn't find out until Monday.

1st Period: English 11 AP Frins, H. A22

2nd Period: Band Michaels, D. Q3

3rd Period: Chemistry White, W. C3

4th Period: Calculus Yang, L. A17

5th Period: Spanish AP Rossetti, R. Q8

6th Period: U.S. History AP Antonucci, D A28

I didn't recognize any of my teachers' names, which was a good thing to me. I also doubted that I would see Ed or Eddy in any of my AP classes and I really doubted I would see them in calculus. I had advanced classes for most of my day, I was one grade ahead in math, and chemistry was just a normal class. I knew that I would have a workload, but I liked it nonetheless. It makes me feel accomplished, and it always keeps my head busy. I wondered who I would actually see in my classes and what would happen when I went to school. That day came a lot faster than what I thought.

It was Sunday night, and I was surprised how fast it came up on me. I had had dinner with my parents, something I was glad to do, considering how I almost never eat with my parents. They wished me luck on school and I wished them luck on their travels. Normally I wasn't nervous about going to school, but I was extremely nervous, heart beating, sweating just a little, and my mind going extremely fast. It was difficult for me to go to sleep that night, but after the seventh time checking to see if my alarm was on, I was able to fall asleep.

. . . . .

My alarm went off at 5:45, and I awoke with a start. I shot up, and realized where I was and what was going on. I sighed to myself, knowing that this could either be a boring, normal day, or a very bad one. I was hoping that I could just lie low, but that would be difficult being a new student and all. I got out of bed and went off to the shower. After doing most of my daily routine and getting clothes on (which was a green and black long sleeve shirt with a pair of black pants), I ate my breakfast. I saw that it was 6:10 and that I would leave in about 40 minutes, so I had plenty of time to do what I wanted. I knew the school didn't start until 7:10, and that it would take me about 10 minutes to get there on my bike, so I decided to drown out some of my worry by checking facebook and anything else I had on my phone, but this didn't help the feeling of dread and nervousness that had grown into a bonfire in my stomach.

As the time wound down to when I would have to head off, the feeling of dread and nervousness just got worse. I checked my backpack for the third time, just trying to use up time until I would have to go off. I saw that it was 6:45, so I only had another five minutes to stay here. As much as I wished I could stay here, I just couldn't. Never before had I had a feeling like this be so strong. I felt helpless, powerless, and in enemy territory. Everything could go horribly wrong today, and the more I thought about it, the worse I felt about today. _Alright, just stop thinking about it, we can get through today easily, just keep your cool,_ I thought. I decided to clear my head and think about all of the faces I hadn't seen before. After all, the cul-de-sac would be such a small population of the high school, what would be the chances I would get involved with them? This made me feel a little better about today, but I knew that feeling wouldn't last.

When it was time to head off, I rode away on my bike to the high school. The butterflies in my stomach kept coming up, and I knew that they would just get worse as I got closer to the school, but I tried to ignore them. After a few minutes of riding to school, it came into view and I rode up to the bike rack. I locked up my bike and looked around. I saw a lot of unfamiliar faces, and to my relief, no one was looking at me weird. I popped in my earbuds and put the list to shuffle to have it land on Ferris-Time. I felt scared, but I didn't let my face show it. If it was something else I was good at, it was to make a believable facade. I walked in the front gate of the school and looked for a place to sit and listen to music. This proved to be more difficult than what you might think, because I didn't know anyone, and those who I did know I wanted to avoid. Eventually, I found a place to sit down outside, so I just sat and listened to music until the bell rang to go to class.

After about ten minutes I thought I heard the bell and I opened my eyes to see everyone walking to their classes. I got up and went off to my classroom, and was glad that my parents took me here to look around the campus when I was in middle school. Now I knew I was going to the A buildings which were in the back of the school, but I didn't remember where some of the other classes were. I guess I would just figure out where they were as I went along.

I made my way to my first class and walked in to see about half the class already in their seats. I scanned the room quickly to see if I could find any familiar faces, and thank god I didn't. I walked up to the teacher to talk to her. She was a middle-aged woman, short and slightly fat to be honest about it. She wore glasses, and had curly brown hair that went down to her back.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Frins?"

"Yes?" She said, looking at me.

"I'm the new student here, I was just wondering where to sit."

"Alright, well, first let me give you some of the information about the class and the syllabus. Oh, and can you take off your hat?" _Oh, great, this question,_ I thought, knowing that I would have to explain the reason I would have to keep it on.

"Um, actually can I leave it on? It's kind of for a medical reason." I said, not wanting to get into details about my scar.

"Oh, what's the medical reason?"

"It's something I don't really want to go into details about, but I could explain it later." I told her.

"Um, sure, just be sure to get something to me to explain it. It's just school rules." She explained, and handed me a few papers. "Oh, and the school wanted me to give you this," she said, handing me a manila envelope full of papers I could only assume were the school papers and guidelines. "Hand that into the office when you get everything in there signed, ok?" I nodded my head as the one minute bell rang.

"So where do I sit?" I asked.

"Oh, let me see..." She said, looking at what I assumed was a seating chart. I stood for a few seconds before she looked back up at me. "I think you can sit there, by Ethan." She said, pointing to a desk next to a blonde haired kid.

"Alright, thanks." I said before walking over to my seat. The desks were arranged by pairs, and I was sitting in the back next to this kid named Ethan. He was a short white kid, with blue eyes and blonde hair in a bowl cut, and from what I could tell about him based on appearance, he was a nerd. Hell, how could I judge, I was taking AP classes and a grade higher in math, who could I call a nerd? I took my seat next to Ethan, and put down my backpack.

"Hey," I said as a greeting.

"Oh, hi." He said, just looking up long enough to glance at me. I could tell he wasn't a huge social person, but neither was I, so I didn't have any complaints. Besides a few spoken words here and there, we didn't talk much, and before I knew it, the period was over. I walked to my second class, Band. I didn't know where the Q buildings were, so when I got out of class, I walked around to see if there was any alphabetical order to the school at all, but it didn't seem like there was, so I went up to a girl to see if she knew. I tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention.

"Excuse me, but do you know where the Q buildings are?" She seemed surprised by my question before pointing to the other side of campus.

"They should be over there in the corner." She stated simply.

"Alright, thanks," I said before walking to the corner of campus. I knew that I only had a couple more minutes to get to my class, but I thought I could make it. I made it to the Q buildings, but as I made it, the one minute bell rang. I still didn't know where Q3 was, and now I was starting to worry, because being late on my first day wouldn't make a good first impression. After a few seconds of frantic searching, I found the room and hopped in just in time, as the bell rang just as I stepped inside. I walked over to my teacher, Mr. Michaels, who was a tall man in what looked like his thirties, and started to talk to him.

"Mr. Michaels?" He turned around to look at me, and grabbed a couple papers from his desk.

"Ah, yes, are you the new student?" He asked, with a happy face.

"Yeah, I just need to know where to sit, and I'm assuming you have papers for me?" I asked.

"Yup, here they are," he said, handing me the papers he grabbed from the desk. "As for where to sit, just anywhere. We don't really have a seating chart in here, so just get comfortable." He seemed like a really laid back teacher, something I like to see in a teacher. I looked around and saw that the desks were in groups of four or five, most of the seats taken up. I looked around, and I found Jonny. _Oh thank god it's not someone else!_ I thought, seeing a familiar face. I went and sat in the group he was in, which was just him and some other guy with long brown hair that went down past his eyes and down to the back of his collar in the back. He reminded me of Randy, except he wasn't asian. Now that I think of it, it's weird not seeing so many different races, as New York was a mixing pot. In Peach Creek, though, it was hard to find someone that wasn't white. I decided not to think too much about it and sat down next to Jonny.

"So, you're taking band too?" Jonny asked me when I sat down.

"Yeah, I didn't know you could play," I told him.

"Well, I've been looking into the trombone, and I've been playing it for a few months now. Can you play other instruments besides the guitar and steel pedal guitar?" He asked.

"Nah, I haven't really had enough time to learn other things."

"Hmm, then you can't play in the band. Ah well, luckily for you this is more of a general music class than an actual band club." Jonny replied. After talking back and forth and being introduced to the class, the rest of the period went smoothly. I could tell that I would like this teacher, but I realized I had a question I had to ask him. After class I went up to him to talk to him.

"So, when should I bring my guitar?" I was wondering about when there would be lessons involving actual instruments and when I should bring mine.

"I'll tell you when to bring it, alright?" He asked, raising his eyebrow.

"Alright. By the way, where are the C buildings?" I asked, wondering where my next class was going to be.

"They are just over there in that corner." He said pointing to another corner of the school.

"Alright, thanks!" I said as I walked out of the classroom. _Jesus, I'm gonna have to be walking all over campus, aren't I?_ After a few minutes I found the building I was supposed to go to. I walked into chemistry and saw the teacher at his desk, typing at his computer. Mr. White was a balding middle aged guy with a wrinkled face. He seemed like a pretty normal guy to me, so I felt like this class was going to be the most normal out of all of my classes.

"Mr. White? I'm the new student." He looked up when I said this, and he seemed to look at me like he was observing me.

"Ah, yes, Eddward, right?" He said, getting a couple of papers from his desk.

"Please sir, is it alright if you call me Daniel? It's just the name I've been called." I said, a little nervous, thinking that there might have been someone I knew in the room who might have recognized the name.

"Alright, let me get that written down on the roll sheet. Oh, and these are for you." He said as he handed me a few papers. I stayed by his desk as he wrote down my name on the roll sheet, and he looked at the seating arrangement for a while before looking back up at me and looking around me to the desks.

"Um, you can sit there, in the desk to the left." He said pointing to a pair of desks to the right of me. I knew which one he was talking about, because there was only one pair of desks not taken up yet. I went and sat down next to a girl with long dark brown hair, glasses, and wearing a white long sleeve shirt. I said hi, and she said hi back. Besides that, we didn't have any other interaction. The class seemed like it was going normally and boring, until I heard a certain name called out.

"Kevin, can you answer number three?" My eyes shot open and I waited until I heard his voice to turn around.

"Um, I think it's carbon?" He said, more of a question than an answer. I looked behind me to see where the voice came from, and saw Kevin in a dark green hoodie with his red hair in a buzzcut. _How did I not know he was in here?_ I mentally scolded myself, thinking about the dire consequences if I happened to give myself away right in front of him. I looked away, and now knew how much more of a challenge this class would be. While I was glad that it wasn't someone like Ed or Eddy or someone who would recognize me right away, I was still stressing over the fact that I had Kevin in my class. Not only that, this class would become a hell of a lot more stressful once my secret was out. The rest of the period was me just trying to lay low and learn more about that class. I was worrying about what would happen if my secret got out, but once I was out, I took a few more seconds to get a look at Kevin. He had changed, his face more masculine, his body more muscular, and he seemed to be older than what I remembered, but I guessed that I would think that about everyone I would see from the cul-de-sac. After seeing how much had changed about Kevin, I went to my fourth period class, calculus.

I walked over to the A buildings yet again to my class, and I was able to find my class without having to ask. I walked in, and found that the desks were in rows of two, just like most of the classrooms I had been in today. I walked up to the teacher, a short asian woman with glasses, and introduced myself.

"Hello, Mrs. Yang? I'm the new student." I said, and she turned to face me.

"Ah, yes, you're the junior, right? Eddward-"

"Please, call me Daniel." I told her. Even though I knew no one from the cul-de-sac would be in this class, it's just how I've always been called, and if I was called by two different names, it would make things confusing.

"Alright, Daniel, there are only two other juniors in the class, so as you probably know, you are advanced, and this class is already in the middle of the year, so it can be confusing. I'm planning on calling your parents in here so we can talk about everything and get a plan set up, but in the meantime, here are some papers for the class that you need to sign." She handed me a couple papers to sign, like every other teacher has handed me.

"Alright, I can tell my parents that you need to talk to them and get these signed. Thanks." I said as I turned around, but turned to her again. "What seat should I take?" I asked, knowing that I hadn't been assigned a seat yet.

"Well, for now, just sit in the back, the whole row back there is empty. I can find a seat for you based on your grades. People who need more help sit up front so they can pay attention better, but because I don't know enough about you yet, just sit back there."

"Alright, thanks." I said as I went to my seat. I put down my backpack and got out my binder as the one minute bell rang, and while I said no one from the cul-de-sac would be in this class, I was technically right, but I was so scared by who I saw come into the door. I saw a flash of blue from the door, and it caught my attention, so I looked up to see what it was.

I wish I hadn't.

I saw a very familiar face, way too familiar, and it stopped my heart. Sure enough, it was Marie Kanker, right there, in the front of the class. _Shit shit shit shit, what? How?_ _Wha? I don't..._ My mind went completely blank, confused, scared, but to my slight relief, she didn't see me. Instead, she just sat at her regular seat in the front of the class and got her stuff ready. For a second, I was wondering if I was in the wrong classroom, but I realized that I was indeed in the correct room. My mind was sent into a panic, here was one of the three people I didn't want to see, and she was in my class. The one class I thought no one else would be in, and here she was. _I didn't even know she_ w _ould be in here, how? Is she that smart?_ The bell rang, signaling that class had started, but my mind was still in a frenzy. What happened next didn't help whatsoever.

"Hello students, welcome back from winter break. I hope you all had a nice new years, and we have a new student in the back there. You prefer to be called Daniel, right?" When I heard her start to call on me and point me out, I immediately ducked down and acted like I was getting something out of my backpack. My face was flushed, I was in a panic, and my eyes closed shut, expecting to hear my nickname being yelled out by Marie. I felt like I couldn't breathe, and I feared I was going into a panic attack, something that only happened to me once, but was so horrible. I waved my hand and said hi while still keeping my head below the desk. I hoped that my act would work, and when Mrs. Yang went back to her lesson, I waited for a few seconds before popping my head back up. I glanced at Marie, and found that she was still facing away from me, to which I was thankful for. After I recovered from my panic, I tried to lay low, in hopes that I wouldn't be noticed and pointed out again. _Great, now I have to watch_ _myself in this class._ I thought. It seemed that the farther I went into my day the farther into my past I went, seeing faces that were all too familiar to me. After a very stressful fourth period, I went on to lunch, a time that I hoped I could just relax and not have a care about my past coming up. Turns out, I was way far off.

I got my crappy school lunch, something I always despised, and tried to find a place to sit down and jam out to my iPod. Trying to take my mind off of Marie and my past, I thought about what I should pack for lunch tomorrow. I thought over choices, and I eventually found a place on the grass next to a concrete wall that no one was occupying. I sat down and put down my food and took out my earbuds and immediately put on Shurk-The Prophecy, one of the more heavy hitting songs on my iPod. I turned the volume up to completely block out all other noises around me and started eating. As repulsive as school food was, I was content with eating their pizza. I finished within a few minutes and threw away my trash, and went back to the spot I was sitting in. After a few more minutes of listening to some of the louder and heavier songs on my playlist, I felt a tap on my shoulder and looked up. I hadn't realized that I kept my eyes closed while rocking out, but I kept them closed long enough for someone to come up to me. The girl I saw standing above me was quite pretty, with long blonde hair, and a nice, curvy body. I took out an earbud and turned off my music.

"Yes?" I asked, not knowing why she interrupted my music session.

"Can I sit down?" She asked in a voice that sounded familiar, and it sent chills down my spine.

"Sure," I replied, motioning toward a spot next to me. She sat down and looked over at me, and I grinned before saying, "What's your name?"

"My name is Nazzarine, but you can just call me Nazz." I choked and looked away from her. _Fucking Nazz now? Who else is going to come up to me?_ I tried my best to put on a normal face and looked back at her.

"Hi Nazz, my name is Daniel. Sorry about that, I just choked on nothing for a second," I said with a chuckle. She laughed for a little before returning to our conversation.

"I'm wondering if you're new here, I haven't seen you before." She asked me.

"Oh, yeah, I just moved in from New York, so I'm not surprised you haven't seen me. It's my first day at this school, so I still don't know where everything is or who's who."

"Oh, well I can help you with that. Do you want to join my group and we can tell you everything you need to know about this school? It's just me and some of the other girls from our cheer squad. I'm the head cheerleader, if you didn't know that already."

"Hm, nice. I'll be honest, I think I'll stay here for today and just get through today. I would be happy to join your group some other day, but not today. Thanks anyways." I said to her.

"Alright, well how would tomorrow sound?" She asked.

"That sounds good, I can join you tomorrow," I replied.

"Alright, sounds great," she said with a smile before getting up and rejoining her group, who was just out of my view. It was at this moment that I realized something horrifying. _What if she knows who I am? WHAT IF SHE GOES AND TELLS PEOPLE!?_ As paranoid as I sounded, it was a very real possibility. I scrambled up, but calmed myself down, and just to calm my fears, I walked around to see where Nazz went, and quickly found her as I walked around. She was in fact sitting at a table with all of the other cheerleaders, so that made me calm down, as now I knew that she didn't know who I was. I made my way back to my spot and sat back down to listen to music. After some more time had passed, I heard the bell ring and I got up to walk to my class. But before I could actually make it to my class, Nazz stopped me again. Inside I was freaking out, wondering if she actually knew who I was, but I played it cool on the outside.

"You promise that you're actually coming to our table tomorrow?" I could practically tell that she was giving me puppy eyes at this point, but I was actually going to go, so I don't know why she was acting like this.

"Yeah, I said I was going to be with your group, why?" I asked, wanting to know why she seemed like I HAD to be in the group tomorrow.

"Ah, I can't tell you...yet. Don't worry, I could explain later. Bye!" She said as she waved to me, walking in the opposite direction. _Alright, that was weird._ I thought. I had no idea what was going on, but I assumed that I would figure it out later. I went to my next class, and Spanish was surprisingly normal. I walked into the classroom and found my Spanish teacher sitting at his desk, just like all of the other teachers when I walked into class.

"Mrs. Rossetti?" I asked as she looked up to me.

"Ah, yes, you're the new student. Spanish AP, nice. You do know that in this class we only speak spanish, right?"

"Yes, I am aware of that, why else would I take this class?" I replied. After the normal routine of getting my papers and syllabus, I sat down for a normal period, and while I tried to drown the thoughts of Nazz, Marie, Kevin, and anyone else who was in my past who decided to show up randomly. As I was thinking about it, I actually hadn't looked at Marie all that long, and for a second, I thought about if I had mistook some other girl as Marie, but I knew that it had to be her. For that short second that I saw her, I knew it was her. Also, who else would have blue hair here? Then I remembered what Jonny told me, and how sad she was. I felt a sort of guilt and sadness toward her, as I never actually wanted to make anyone sad, I just wanted to fade away from the cul-de-sac. Once the period ended, I was still feeling sad and guilty, but I knew that I only had AP US history left, so it made my day a little easier.

I walked into my last class of the day and walked up to my teacher. He was a middle aged man, and he seemed like a normal and laid back teacher. As I walked up to him, he noticed me.

"Eddward, right?"

"Yes, but I prefer to be called Daniel." I told him.

"Alright, I can do that. Here are the papers you need, I'm sure you've been through this already, so I won't explain." He replied. _Oh, good, he is laid back,_ I thought.

"Thank you, sir. By the way, where should I sit?"

"Well, sit anywhere at this point, I'm giving a new seating arrangement at some point this week, so you can sit anywhere that there's an opening." He said, gesturing toward the classroom.

"Alright, thanks Mr. Antonucci." I said before turning back to the classroom, but when I did, I saw her again. It was Marie. My heart stopped, I felt my breathing getting shallow, and I felt cornered again. She was sitting at the group toward the left of the room, so I went and sat in a group on the right side to make sure I was far away from her. Once again, in a class with Marie Kanker. _This is an AP class too! Jonny didn't tell me that she was smart, what changed?_ I was confused, first in calculus and now an AP class. Was this the right person? I decided to sneak a look at her while I could, and I saw that it was indeed Marie Kanker, despite getting a more mature face and her hair seemed to be more disheveled, she seemed pretty normal. She wore a face of disinterest and a slight scowl, something I'm sure had become her trademark by now. I noticed that she was wearing a long sleeve hoodie that was black, with some sort of design on it. I looked for one more second before deciding that that was indeed Marie Kanker. My mind had calmed down, but I was still worried about how things might go later on in the next few weeks and months. In the end, it turns out my worries would be realized a lot faster than what I had hoped.

After a whole period of lying low, I was able to leave the classroom, but I decided to take my time packing my things, because Marie was close to the door, and I was hoping that she would leave before me, but that was not the case. After almost everyone else had left, I put on my backpack, and I took out my iPod to put it on shuffle. I was walking toward the door, but as I did, Marie was walking to the same place. I tried not to panic, even if my mind was screaming at me that any mistake could end my secret, I went on, and got to the door before she did, and I opened it and held it for her. She didn't say anything, and she still wore the same uninterested face that she had on since I first saw her. For apparently having the reputation as the biggest bully, I hadn't seen anything yet. _Maybe she's in a good mood,_ I wondered.

. . . .

I got home, and immediately went for my bed. Without my parents home, they wouldn't scold me to do my work right away. Today was a stressful enough day, so I wasn't wanting to pile homework on top of it. I sat in bed, and rested, thinking about everything that had happened in that day alone. _First, Kevin in my Chemistry class, then Nazz_ _at lunch, and now Marie in two of my classes? Why did this have to happen? Why did my past have to just burst in like this? Why couldn't it have just snuck in and taken_ _longer to come up on me? Why did I have to come back?_ My entire mind was filled with these types of questions, but then it occurred to me that this day could have gone so much worse. _Kevin could have figured out who I was. Marie had two periods and two times where she could have easily seen who I was, but instead, I remain unseen. I just have to lie low for a while longer. At least until I'm ready...which will be never, won't it?_ My mind swirled and stewed in my thoughts for an hour, before I decided to quit dwelling and get to homework.

Even when I was doing my homework, I kept thinking about everyone, when I realized I never saw Ed or Eddy. _Thank God for that_ , I told myself in my head. Once I was done with my work, I got up and went to the kitchen to fix myself something. I made myself some dinner, ate it, and I spent the rest of my day working on songs and other such projects to keep my mind off of the thoughts racing through my head, the most pressing one being that Marie Kanker was in two of my classes, and not only that, advanced classes. _Did I see her wrong this entire time?_ I asked myself, and found that it was a really good question. I thought about what else I had assumed wrong about Marie, and how much she had changed. I thought about this among other things, but this was what ended up keeping me up that night.

"I was so wrong about her, I guess," I spoke softly to myself. I laid in my bed looking up at the ceiling, wondering about this day. My mind was blank, yet it was full of thoughts. I felt confused, and anxious, worried about tomorrow, and the upcoming weeks. I didn't know what to expect for the next few weeks, and how much I was worried about how easily my secret could come out at this time. After pondering this for an hour, another thought occurred to me. _Where were Ed and Eddy? I know I didn't see them, but I want to see Ed again. I don't want to talk to him, I just want to see if the big lug is doing ok._ After numerous thoughts about tomorrow and the next week and everyone from the cul-de-sac, I fell into a sleep, with my thoughts becoming distorted and strange, but I let my sleep take me, as I did have school tomorrow, but I knew it was going to be a hectic day.

 **A.N: Thank you all for the reviews and favorites! This is something I really enjoy doing and it's cool hearing your reactions to it. By the way, I added a couple easter eggs in the teachers names, but that's pretty easy to spot. Hope you all loved this chapter, and in the next few chapters, things are going to go down with Marie and maybe Ed and Eddy, I'll have to see what happens with that. Anyways, if it seems to be moving slow, that's just the way the pace will be, but not for long! And as always, I love reviews, so bring them in! I'm open to advice, but keep in mind, some of the plot is already worked out by me, so don't be disappointed if I don't take it. Anyways, I'm glad to get back to this story, and I'll see you in the next chapter!**

 **P.S: If there are any errors or italics out of place, notify me so I can fix it and make the story better. Thanks!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A.N: Alright, my schedule is getting busy yet again, but should clear up within the next few weeks. As for everyone who's favorited, followed and reviewed, thank you yet again for the support. Anyways, hope you all enjoy this next chapter, and reviews are always appreciated!**

To say that the week was uneventful would be an understatement. A huge one. When I went into this week, I was hoping for an uneventful week, where I could just lie low and not be noticed. But as it turns out, Peach Creek High School was a small world as at this point I had just met up with Nazz and Jonny, and had Kevin and Marie in my classes. For someone who wanted to lie low, I was sure given a full plate. I had no idea how I would survive this week, but I had to at least try.

. . . .

I woke up Tuesday, knowing that today would be as stressful as Monday, if not more stressful. I was yet again sighing to myself and dreading going to school, but at least I know what to expect. When I was riding my bike to school, I remembered my commitment to meet with Nazz and her friends. _Fuuuuuck...why did I agree to that?_ I thought. I didn't want to, but I was kind of forced into it. Anyways, I knew that I could keep my cool and not be found out when I would go to eat with her friends, but I still didn't like the idea that I would have to eat with them. I've never been intrigued by normal conversations, and I would always get bored from them, but if it was something that I was interested about, I could go on for hours. I also loved to see someone talk about something that they enjoy, and I loved to see the passion light up in their eyes. That was something that I always loved to see. After these little thoughts, I got my bike and went to school.

The first part of the day seemed to go by normally and uneventfully. I hardly talked in first period, talked a little with Jonny in band, tried not to be noticed in chemistry, and went out of my way to blend in in calculus. Luckily for me, I was never pointed out or called on in either third or fourth period, so neither Kevin nor Marie saw me. I was very appreciative of that, but I still had lunch to go through, and this could end up to be a disaster. Knowing my luck so far, I was expecting it to be one, but my luck had finally decided t give me a break, although it was an awkward one at that.

I left my calculus class and went off to the table where I assumed they would be...but saw no one there at the time. _Oh, great, now what?_ I thought. I decided to go to my other spot and sit down there for a while. I was glad that they weren't there, but also kind of upset that they would just leave me. _Maybe they didn't get their lunch yet...ah well, whatever. They can come over here and yell at me then._ I thought as I took out the lunch I had made yesterday, which was just a simple sandwich with some chips and a drink. But as I was about to start eating, Nazz came up to me.

"I thought you were coming to join us," She spoke with a hint of annoyance in her voice. _Jesus, I looked over there like a minute ago!_

"I was going to, but when I looked I couldn't see you guys," I said as I rose up. I gathered my lunch and looked back at her.

"Alright, let's go then." She started walking off toward the tables, and I now saw that the table I had looked at just a minute ago was now full of girls. _Alright Edd, it's just for one day. I don't have to go after this, it's just a one time thing_ I thought. I still didn't want to go, but I didn't want to be on anyone's bad side yet, especially not someone who I knew in the past. We got to the table and there was an open seat, which I found strange and slightly suspicious that they managed to leave one open seat in the table. I sat down and put my lunch down, and felt very weird being surrounded by girls, and the cheerleading team at that. _Two days into school and I find myself in this position. Ah well, it's not going to be awkward though, I hope._

"So why did you want me to eat with you guys?" I questioned, wanting to know what their motives were. After all, I doubted that they invited people to sit with them all the time, so what made me different?

"Well, some of us noticed that you were new here," Nazz said, her voice directed toward someone who I remembered from my chemistry class, "and we wanted to just tell you about the school."

"Alright, so what should I know?" I asked uninterestedly, but tried my best to put up a facade of curiosity instead.

"Alright," the girl across from me started. "well, the first thing you have to know is the groups here at lunch and breakfast." _Oh, wow, that's something stupid to start off with,_ I thought. To me, it sounded like the start to some cheesy movie where the new girl gets to sit with all the popular girls in the beginning. "So, I'm not sure if there were groups where you were from, but here there are lots. You have nerds, jocks, popular kids, rejects, pretty much any group you can think of, they are all in their own groups." I thought for a second before coming up with a question to make this conversation at least a little entertaining.

"Well, in New York there weren't any groups, we all just hung out with our friends. So, which group do you think I should be in then?" I asked, and smiled to myself as I saw their looks go from eagerness to tell me about this school to processing the question I just asked them.

"Uh, I think…"

"Maybe…"

"Uhm…" It was priceless to see the looks of confusion on their faces, but soon a couple voices came up.

"I think you could fit in with the jocks, or maybe the popular kids."

"Yeah, I think you would fit in with the popular kids."

"Well, if you don't find your group, you can always stay with us." Nazz spoke up after everyone got in their two cents.

"Haha, thanks. Now, what can you tell me that I'll really need to know about this school? Who should I look out for, which teachers should I avoid, what can I get away with here?" I asked, wanting to know the questions that were actually useful.

"Well, you should look out for Marie Kanker for starters. She's been known as a major bully here, but she somehow she hasn't been expelled or put down a grade."

"Wait, Marie Kanker? As in the girl with blue hair?" I asked, acting as if I didn't know her.

"Yeah, did you already have a run-in with her?" A girl next to me said.

"No, I mean I heard about her from someone else, but I thought that they were just messing around with me. She's in my calculus class and my APUSH class-"

"Wait, she's in calculus?!" A girl exclaimed from the opposite end of the table. I saw that everyone's faces were shocked at the statement I had just said.

"What, you didn't know that?" I asked. I didn't know how it seemed that Marie could have a reputation for the biggest bully on campus, yet have advanced courses all without people knowing.

"No!" was the answer that was shouted at me from almost everyone at the table. Those who didn't comment just stared in disbelief.

"Are you serious?" Nazz asked me. "I mean, is she really in those advanced courses?"

"Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure about her other classes, but she's in two of my advanced classes."

I saw that they just looked at each other, but I also saw a couple of their faces turn from disbelief to a smirk, one with evil intent in it. I decided to dismiss it for now, and asked my second question.

"Well, she doesn't seem like a huge bully, I mean, she hasn't done anything in the classes I'm in, and she hasn't even said a word." I said, hoping to get some clarification of how she is this "huge bully." Luckily, one of the girls across the table elaborated.

"Ha, then you haven't even seen her in action. Be careful of her, she is crafty and precise about how she bullies. She doesn't always use brute strength, but when she does, it can get bad." They all seemed to remember a bad memory, and all grimaced at the thought.

"What did she do?" I inquired. There was an uncomfortable silence at the table, and I looked from face to face, seeing if anyone would answer me. Finally, a girl on the left side of the table spoke up.

"Well, last year, she got really pissed at some guy and beat the crap out of him. He had to have stitches in his head from what she did to him." _Well damn,_ I thought. I didn't think that she would do something like that. I always knew that she was a tough girl, but I didn't imagine this.

"Wow, she has an attitude." I remarked.

"Oh, you don't know the half of it. I'm surprised you haven't seen her do anything yet. Oh well, it'll only be a matter of time." Nazz replied. As lunch went on, we talked about other things, like what classes I was in, what shops I should go to for what, and every so often I looked to see a couple of the girls who seemed to fawn over me. Even if I was around Nazz, someone who could find out who I really am, I felt comfortable. I felt like I had back in New York, how me and my friends would always banter back and forth. And of course with Randy there, we had girls in our group all the time, who would always give us love-hungry looks. At first, it felt weird, but eventually I had adapted to it, and now I could talk to girls with ease, which some guys are jealous that I can do that.

The bell rang for us to go to our next class, and I walked away from the group. As I was walking to my class, I looked around and saw a couple guys looking at me and talking about me. I gave them a glare, and they stopped looking at me. I had a pretty good idea that they were talking about me getting invited to the cheerleaders table, but I didn't care about petty little gossip like that, unless, of course, it got me popular. That was something I couldn't quite risk at this point.

The rest of the day went as uneventful as it could have, and Wednesday was no different, except for one little conversation I had with someone at lunch. I decided to sit alone on Wednesday, as I just wanted to jam out and eat my food. Unfortunately, a guy decided to come up to me a few minutes after lunch had started. He seemed like he was part of the popular crowd, and he had short dirty blonde hair that was gelled up in the front. He had blue eyes and was dressed up very well. He had a smile on his face, and I was a little cautious about him, but I took out my earbuds anyways.

"Hey, not sitting with the cheerleaders today?" He said in a friendly voice. Even if I didn't like social encounters, he seemed like someone I could get along with.

"Nah, I might some other day, but I just wanted to listen to music today." I replied. He smiled and stuck his hand out to me.

"My name's Kenny." I gave him a handshake and told him my name.

"Mine is Daniel."

"Nice to meet you. Anyways, I just wanted to tell you a couple things. You're new here, aren't you?" I nodded, and gave him a sideways glance, wondering how he knew that.

"It's just because I haven't seen you around here. When a new person comes here, we normally know about it. Anyways, I just wanted to let you know that you can join my group at any time. We are a couple tables over from the cheerleaders. Also, I don't know what you did, but no one gets invited to sit with the cheerleaders. Well, unless they're friends of one of the cheerleaders, that is, but I don't know why they invited you. No offense, I mean, it's just so uncommon." He told me.

"No, it's ok, I don't know what I did either, but I decided to go sit with them, Anyways, thanks for the invite, I might come and meet you guys at some point." I replied. We said our goodbyes and that was it. Kenny seemed like a nice guy, and I decided that I would go eat with his group at some point in the next week or two. The rest of the day passed by as unremarkable as Tuesday, but unfortunately the same couldn't be said for Thursday.

. . . .

Thursday rolled around, and if I had known what it had in store for me, I might have stayed home. As the day started out like normal, I actually thought that I might have fallen into an actual routine, one that I could follow and stay in the monotony of the school without being noticed too much. Unfortunately, fate had other plans for me. At lunch, I was eating my lunch, jamming out to my playlist of harder hitting songs when I noticed someone who caught my eye. Or rather, two people. My eyes shot open, and I was surprised by who I saw.

It was Ed and Eddy.

I looked at them, and saw them walking to a different part of school, which meant that they had to be late today. I looked at Eddy, and saw that he was quite short, around five foot seven. He seemed like he was a little muscular, but also fat. He had a face that was filled with grumpiness and disinterest and a little goatee. I looked at Ed and saw how he had changed. He was towering, around six foot seven, a full foot taller than Eddy. He had become muscular as well, and looked like he would be an amazing football player. Ed had a face of gloom and sadness, and I felt bad for him. I don't know what happened to him, but I felt bad for my true friend, the one who I had left. I wanted to go and talk to him, but I knew he would make a big scene out of it, as he normally would. After that little encounter, I thought that my day would go back onto the path of normality. It didn't.

While at first it looked like it would be normal, when I got into my sixth period class, I noticed that all the APUSH students were around the outside of the classroom. I knew this only meant one thing. _Shit, we're changing seats!_ I knew that this could be bad, but I also thought about how low the chances were that I would get seated next to me. Turns out, fate decided to make this days road take a sharp turn in a completely different direction. Sure enough, I was seated in the same group with Marie. She was in the spot diagonal from me, and when I heard that I was going to be in the same group with her, I froze up. Apparently, the other people in the same group also froze up, so I wasn't alone. I had a different reason to be afraid, though. After I got out of my frozen state, I sat in my seat and tried to hide away my face from Marie as best I could. The other two in my group sat down and seemed to be trembling from nervousness and fear. I managed to stay cool and brought my head back up, hoping that Marie was facing away from us, or rather, me. When I looked back up, though, she was facing all of us. Then for the first time in four years, I heard her speak.

"Listen fuckers, if I didn't make myself clear at the start of the year, none of you will tell anyone that I'm in this class. Got it?" While the other two nodded, I just took notice of her voice. It had definitely lost it's high pitched shrillness, something I could tell even if she spoke in a growling whisper. Then, she looked at me with narrow eyes, and I felt my face go red and I could tell I looked surprised, and it was all because that now could be the moment all hell broke loose and my real identity would be known. That's not what happened, though.

"And you, I know you're new here, and I have a reputation to keep, so you won't speak a word with anyone that I'm in here, and especially don't tell anyone about my math class." She was intimidating, but that didn't phase me. I lost my face of surprise, and instead chose one of disinterest.

"Don't know why you wouldn't want to be known as smart, but alright." I remarked. Her eyes narrowed, and for a split second she seemed like she was observing me.

"You obviously don't know anything about me, maybe I should show you what I mean about my reputation," she hissed. I could practically see the other two kids in our group swallow hard. They were scared, scared of her. It was at this point that I realized how much danger my actions were starting to get me into. While Marie hadn't recognised me right off the bat, I knew that if I kept this up I was running down the clock even faster. I narrowed my eyes at her, and just looked away, getting things out of my backpack. She snorted, and then I heard something she growled under her breath.

"Oh, you're gonna learn your place soon." I would have replied with something like "I'd like to see you try," but realized just how stupid of a mistake that would have been. Instead, I just went about my normal activities, but Marie decided to say one last thing.

"Lastly, if I hear any of you bothering me or talking shit about me, you're gonna regret it. So you'd better keep your mouths shut, got it?" While the other two nodded and replied with faint "uh-huh's," I simply kept quiet, until she looked at me and said, "And you new guy?"

"First off, my name is Daniel, and secondly, you won't hear me say a word," Marie seemed to relax for a second, before I decided to add "My mom always told me not to say anything unless it's nice." She slammed a fist down onto my desk, and while the other two kids backed up from their desk, I stayed there, unphased. Marie stood up from her chair, and I could tell she was angry. It looked like she was about to start a fight with me, but Mr. Antonucci stepped in before anything could happen.

"MARIE, DANIEL! I WILL NOT HAVE FIGHTING IN MY CLASS! Marie, you know just how deep you are in trouble, so don't even try it." Marie was just glaring at me, and slowly sat back in her chair, I made a small smirk, knowing that I had just won that little skirmish. Once Mr. Antonucci looked away, Marie growled a warning to me.

"Daniel, you are going regret what you just did, I'm gonna make sure of it." I just looked at her with my smirk and went back to my classwork. Nothing else was spoken at the table for the rest of the period, and when the bell rang, I left class without looking back for Marie. While I still did feel bad for her, it was a little nice to give her a little of her own disrespect. As I was walking to my bike, however, someone from the APUSH class walked up to me, and started talking to me.

"Do you realize what you just did?!" a short, fat guy with round glasses and red, curly hair practically yelled at me.

"Apparently not." I replied.

"You just won an argument with Marie Kanker! The Marie Kanker!"

"You're overreacting about this, I hope you know that."

"Well, you haven't seen what she can do to people. I feel bad for you, because you just dug your own grave!" He started chuckling, and I started to feel annoyed by this guys presence.

"Well, unlike most of the kids at this school, I can actually stand up for myself. This whole goddamn school is one of those stereotypical 'high school musical' bullshit. I swear, most of you guys are just fucking cowards. I don't know how this whole school could let her become the biggest bully on campus. Jesus, in New York we would beat the shit out of someone like that and make sure they never did that crap again. None of you people can actually stand up for yourselves, can you?" I could tell this kid was surprised, and he looked down at the ground and started to walk away from me. "See? Not even gonna say anything back to me." I was glad to be rid of him, even if I was a little harsh on him. _Well, looks like I'm not gonna be making any friends with him anytime soon. And so much for apologizing to Marie, I guess._ While I still wanted to say that I was sorry that I left so abruptly, it looks like that apology might not go over as well as I would have hoped.

After my stressful Thursday, I decided to keep the rest of it nice and relaxed. I made sure to keep myself busy, play more guitar, and just have a relaxed afternoon. As I was doing this though, I remember that Marie hadn't wanted anyone knowing that she was in any advanced classes. _Well, looks like that secret is out._ I thought, remembering my conversation with the cheerleaders on Wednesday. I then wondered what she would do to me if she found out what I had said. I didn't worry too much about it, as I knew that I had made a new enemy. We would be at each other's throats until...who knows? After some thoughts about the rest of what had happened in that day, I went to bed, not knowing what tomorrow had in store for me.

If only I knew how much worse it was going to be than today, oh so much worse.

 **A.N: Alright, things are picking up pace and I'm going to drop some major things in the upcoming chapters, this story is going to go from about a 10 to about a 90 at least. So now we have a little description of Ed and Eddy, but they will be introduced better in later chapters, and maybe not in good ways. Oh well, things are going to go downhill for Edd in the next chapter or two, so that should be interesting to see. Anyways, if this update took a long time to release, it was because of school and finals, but I should have free time soon. Anyways, hope you enjoyed that chapter, and reviews are always appreciative.**

 **Last question: I have another fanfic that I have the idea for, and it is on Gravity Falls, but I'm not sure if I should start it now, or once I'm done with this story. What are your guy's thoughts?**


	9. Chapter 9

**A.N: Well, the tallies are in, and I will not be putting out the next fic out yet...yet. I will once this slows down a bit, or at least release the first chapter, considering that I will need to explain a lot about it, as it is an experimental fic. Anyways, enough about that, some major bombs are about to be dropped in this chapter, so buckle up and hold on because this is going to go fast and crazy! Glad to see that you all enjoy the story so far, and I always love to get reviews. As of now, December 14th, I still have until the 18th to get through finals, and then my time will free up. Not sure when this chapter will get up, but my time will free up. Alright, put on your bullet proof helmets, because we're taking a trip through the warzone!**

 **As I said before, I was wanting this week to go by smoothly and uneventfully. As I woke up on Friday, however, I realized just how much fate decided to throw at me. What with practically all the cul-de-sac kids surprising me and talking to me, and Marie and I getting into an argument. I also knew that the information I had told the cheerleaders was bound to get out at some point and I would get into deep trouble with Marie, and that she would probably try to beat the shit out of me. I kind of wish she did instead of what actually ended up happening.**

. . . .

My Friday seemed uneventful at first, as every other day had been. Breakfast, first, second, and even third period with Kevin seemed normal. Nothing remarkable in them at all. When I go to to calculus, though, I noticed that when Marie walked in, she was giving me angry glances every now and then. _Well, I don't really know if I should have expected anything different,_ I thought. I was just glad we were separated in this class, otherwise we would probably be in a huge arguement by now. Little did I know what kind of intent she had behind those eyes.

Class ended and I was happy to get out of the same room with Marie because it seemed that even when she wasn't even facing me, I could feel her eyes burning holes into me. I decided that I would finally eat with the "popular kids" for lunch today. I went to where I assumed their table was, and sure enough, I found Kenny sitting at the table with a couple other people. I sat down and Kenny greeted me.

"Alright, I'll wait until everyone else gets here before I actually introduce you." Kenny was someone who seemed to always be friendly, no matter who he was talking to. I was wondering if anyone else at this table would be like him, but a bigger surprise was going to be waiting for me. A few seconds later, three people walk over to the table, with people looking over from other tables at them. There was a tall guy with a dark blue hoodie, light blue beanie, and had blue eyes and dark brown hair. Opposite of him was a girl with an hourglass figure with light brown hair that went down to the middle of her back, and she had skinny jeans and a striped zip-up hoodie. In the middle was a short blonde girl with wide hips that really complimented her body. She seemed very athletic, but something seemed...strange about her. Almost familiar… As I looked at her for another second, I realized who I was looking at. _Oh Jesus, this is May._ I felt like slamming my head down on the table because yet again, I find my past coming up to jump in my face yet again.

"Oh, who is this, Kenny?" The girl with light brown hair spoke. Their group of three sat down at the table, just across from me.

"Don't worry, I'll introduce him when the other two get here."

"Well, my name is Sandra," the girl with brown hair said.

"My name is James," the guy who had been silent up until now had said.

"And I'm May," she said. I was shocked to hear her voice, as it had changed from the annoying shrill voice it once was, to something a little more feminine and sweeter. I noticed that her teeth had also been straightened, and were no longer jutting out. I was shocked, but was brought out of it by a nudge to my foot from Kenny. I looked at him and he looked at me.

"Sorry, but I really zoned out there. Can you say your names again?" I asked with a slight chuckle. They laughed and repeated their names. _That was a pretty good save there._ "Well, my name is Daniel, nice to meet you guys." I replied.

"Well, welcome to the group Daniel. So, where are you from?" May asked me. I felt slightly worried because she asked me, but at this point I was kind of used to it. I trusted May slightly to keep my secret if she actually did know, but I hoped she didn't.

"New York" I replied just as two other people came up to the table. They were quite obviously a couple, holding each other with their free hands as they walked over to the table. The guy was short, with short black hair and a red long sleeve shirt. His girlfriend was also short with very beautiful green eyes, and with a pink jacket, they almost looked like they were a perfect match. Kenny leaned up to me and whispered in my ear.

"That's David and Jackie. They're known for being the cutest couple here." I just looked at him and smiled with a little chuckle. Somehow, I was spot on. I looked back to see that they had noticed me.

"Woah, do we got a new guy?" David smiled, and I could tell he was also friendly, but maybe not quite as friendly as Kenny. I guess I'll give him time.

"Yup, this is Daniel, and he moved in from New York." Kenny said as he put a hand on my shoulder. I nodded and said "Hey."

"Hey Daniel, my name's David," he stuck his hand out for a handshake, and I gladly took it.

"And I'm Jackie," she offered with a small wave. I looked at her and gave her a smile.

"So, what do you like to do?" James asked me from his seat.

"Ah, I like to do lots of things, actually. I can play guitar, make music on my computer, I can dance, and I'm really good in school." I replied, listing off some of the things that I normally do. I could see everyones eyes widen when I listed off my list. Kenny then broke the silence.

"Damn dude, most of us just mess around a lot, you really know how to use your time!" He said with a laugh. I looked at him and grinned. _Well, I do have a lot of free time._

"So, what kind of dance do you do, and have you made any songs yet?" I always get kind of nervous when people ask me about my breakdance, mostly because I feel that they would judge me if I messed up or didn't do something crazy. Even though I know that they would be impressed my some simple moves, I still felt weird doing those moves in front of people. Either way, I told them.

"Well, I can breakdance and I have made songs, but I'd rather wait before I let you guys listen to them." I noticed that they all went wide eyed yet again, but the silence was short lived.

"Woah, well, I want to see some of those moves on the dance floor when the next dance comes up!" David said to me as he was smiling.

"I guess I can, but I'm always worried that I'll mess up." I said. I always hated knowing that I could mess up at any point, but I learned breakdance for a reason.

"Don't worry, you won't mess up, and even if you do we won't judge." James spoke to me. The conversation went along those lines, and was far more enjoyable than the one I had with the cheerleaders a few days ago. Our conversation went along quite well, and I almost forgot that May was there a few times. She was so quiet, even more so than James. I didn't expect her to be so quiet, but then she asked a question that scared me for a second.

"You seem familiar to me, do I know you from somewhere?" I was shocked at what May had asked me, but I managed to keep my cool.

"I don't know where, unless it was recently. I don't know where else you would have seen me." I replied. She looked at mo for a second, as if accessing a memory stored away, but eventually just dropped it and we continued our conversation.

The lunch bell rang and we all left. I was starting to feel somewhat like I was back in New York, but then I realized that I hadn't asked about anyone else. _Man, I hope I don't seem like an ass now._ I actually found a group that I liked, and funnily enough, they are considered the "popular kids." I didn't really know what to make of it, but I wasn't going to complain. Fifth period went fast, and I was able to think about what to do for the song I had been working on. A couple days ago my data was lost on my computer, but I already knew how most of the song went, so I wasn't too worried about it. I was thinking about how I could change it, rework it, and make it sound even better. However, I wouldn't have time to think about it when I got home later today. I would have a lot more to deal with.

I walked into the APUSH class and put my stuff down. Marie wasn't there yet, but she came in a minute later giving me a glare. I dismissed it, but she looked pissed, even more so than in calculus. She looked me in the eye and started to talk to me.

"I need to see you after class." I just looked at her and scoffed.

"Yeah, I don't think that's gonna happen." I saw her eyes narrow and I just looked at her with a small smirk.

"I'd better see you out there. You don't want to get on my bad side." I scoffed yet again. As scary as Marie might have been when we were younger, I wasn't afraid of her now. She was a head and a half shorter than me and didn't really seem to be all that menacing. So frankly, I didn't care if I did get on her bad side or not.

"I really don't give a shit about whose bad side I'm on, I'll be leaving here in two years, so you don't scare me at all." I threw out everything about being worried if I was caught, I just wanted to show Marie that she wasn't the ruler over this school. I hated people like her, people who thought that they were better than everyone and tried to show it off. Even if she wasn't really showing it off, I still wanted to show her that she was not ruler of this school.

"You're making a mistake, I hope you know that." She growled while grinding her teeth. I smiled to myself, knowing that she was getting really annoyed. I let the conversation drop as class started, and I noticed that she kept giving me sideways glances and glares throughout class. This kept up for the entire class period, and I was waiting for it to end just so I could get home and have the entire week to myself. The bell rang, and I got my stuff and walked out the door. Unfortunately, Marie was right on my tail. Just as I walk out the door, I feel a tug on my backpack as Marie pulls me back over to her. I turn to face her, and I see an extremely pissed Marie.

"Where the fuck do you think you're going?" She said as she grabs onto my shirt.

"Who the fuck do you think you are grabbing onto my shirt?" I say as I rip her hand off my shirt. Her face gets even more pissed off. I notice people stop and stare at us, and a small circle starts forming around us.

"No, don't give me your bullshit-"

"And don't give me your attitude. Don't even try hitting me either, because from the sounds of it, you're already in a lot of trouble." I smiled once again to myself, knowing that I could win this fight, but I really didn't want it to escalate into a fight. Getting suspended in the first week of school would not be on my list. I saw her face twist even further into anger, and I was actually scared that this might turn into a fight, but luckily that didn't happen. Instead she came right up next to my ear and whispered so I would be the only one to hear.

"I'm gonna find you outside of school and beat the shit out of you for telling people that I'm in calculus." She backed away from my ear, but I wasn't about to let this drop. Maybe because I was stupid, or maybe because I still wanted to show Marie her place, I poked at the fire.

"Oh, why are you afraid of people knowing that? I'm sure everyone here would love to hear it!" I shouted, gesturing toward the large crowd gathered around us. Her eyes shot open, and she took a quick step toward me, grabbing onto my shirt with both of her hands and pushing me.

"YOU BETTER NOT!" She shouted at me. When she shoved me, I took a step back, but quickly came back and shoved her off of me. She let go of my shirt and took a couple steps away from me.

"I don't know why you're so scared of that information getting out, but whatever, I won't tell them." I said as I walked away. The crowd parted and let me pass, and I didn't hear another word from Marie. As I passed through the crowd, though, everyone was giving me a look of surprise and...a little bit of fear. I might have been the first person to get away with talking back to Marie like that unscathed, and I planned on keeping it that way. No one dared talk to me when I walked out of school that day, probably because they were slightly afraid of me. But little did I know just how much trouble this was actually going to get me into.

I rode home and did normal things that I would have done in New York had I still been there. I worked on my song, getting things done, and just having some fun after what had happened at school. I decided that I would ride my bike around and maybe just go wherever I end up. I got out my bike and didn't have any direction in mind, and just headed off where I felt like. This ride didn't last long. In no time I found myself riding down the alley that was right behind the cul-de-sac, the one that Ed, Eddy and I would always walk down and even made some of our scams down here. My nostalgic thoughts were cut short when I spotted a blue-haired Kanker walking in my direction. Before I had time to turn around, I heard Marie shout in my direction, and most obviously toward me.

"HEY BASTARD! GET OVER HERE!" Her voice was loud, and I wouldn't be surprised if the kids in the cul-de-sac heard it too. I faced her and rode my bike to her.

"So, still mad at me, I see?" I grinned, fully confident that I would be able to defend myself. Within a couple seconds, we were within a step of each other.

"Fuck yeah I'm still mad. I had to scare those prissy-ass cheerleaders to keep quiet because of you!" I just smiled at what she said, and this seemed to be making her even angrier.

"I didn't really like them either." I said. "In fact, I don't like this school in general. I wish I was back in New York."

"Why did you tell people after I specifically told you not to?!" She shouted at me. While I had calmed down a bit, it seemed Marie hadn't.

"Well, I told them before you told me not to." I said, adding more stress to the before part. "I still don't understand why you don't want to be known as smart, seems like a pretty dumb idea." Her eyebrows furrowed and her face turned into a sneer.

"You wouldn't understand." I started laughing when she said this. She sounded like a pouty kid when she said that, so I couldn't help but let out a laugh. While I was expecting a punch while I was laughing, I didn't feel anything. When I stopped and looked down at her, the look on her face confused me. Her eyes were wide open. Her face was pale. Her mouth was slightly open. I looked at her, wondering what had just happened, and just in case, I looked behind me, but there was nothing. I looked back at her and noticed that she had taken a step back, before saying something that confused me even further.

"Smile." I gave her a confused face, before giving a small smile. "No, show your teeth."

"What the fuck are you doing?" I asked, not knowing what she was trying to do.

"Just...show me your teeth." I looked at her confused once more before showing her my teeth. Her eyes focused in on my teeth, and her eyes widened again. "What's your name?"

"Uh, it's Daniel. What is wrong wi-"

"No, your real name."

"What? That is my real name." I said, becoming worried about where she was going with this. She waited for a few seconds before the one word I didn't want to hear from her came rolling out of her mouth.

"...Edd?" My eyes widened when she said my name, and I didn't know what to do. I felt the blood rush from my face, leaving what was most likely a ghostly image of me. I froze like a deer in headlights, and didn't say anything for many seconds. I didn't know what to say, until I realized what had happened. When I was laughing, she saw my teeth...which still had the gap in them, one of my most recognisable features from when I was younger. _HOW COULD I LET THAT SLIP?!_ I mentally screamed at myself. More awkward silence passed between us, until she spoke again.

"Edd...is that really you?" Her eyes were wide, and she looked like she was on the verge of crying. I got off my bike, and took a step towards her.

"Marie...please...don't tell anyone about this." She just looked at me with eyes that were almost letting their tears fall. I didn't know what to say or do, so we just stood in silence for a little while longer. Marie took a step away from me, and then fell to the ground, her head buried in her knees with her back up against the fence. I crouched down beside her, and tried to talk to her.

"Marie, please don't tell anyone that I'm back, I don't want that to get out." I heard her cry and saw her body tremble. She didn't answer me back, so instead what I did was tell her where my house was and to come talk to me when she felt better. She just nodded and kept crying. I felt bad for her, and as I left, I said words that I should have said to her a long time ago.

"I'm sorry." I rode my bike towards my house and put my bike back into the garage. My mind was going fast, thinking about what had just happened. I didn't know what would happen now, and I knew that now my future was in Fates hands. My stupidity had just earned me my secret getting out to one of the people I wanted to keep it away from, and I guess it serves me right. After an hour of thinking about what my future had in store, I heard a knock at my door. Sure enough, when I opened the door, it was Marie, but just as I saw her, I felt something hit me in the left side of my face, which I knew was Maries fist. _Well, I should have expected that._ I look back to her, and see her face, plastered with disbelief, anger, and betrayal.

"Why did you leave us?" The question stabbed at my heart, and I knew that this was going to take a while to explain.

"Just come inside and let me explain." I motioned for her to come into my house, but she just stood there with an angry face.

"Not until you tell me why you left without telling us!" She shouted, letting a couple stray tears roll down her face. I took a step towards her, and I felt so guilty and sad, and as much as I would have loved to just make her forget me or anything else so that she wouldn't be so sad, I needed to explain everything to her.

"Marie, I'm not going to be able to explain it in five minutes, so you can either come inside, or you can stand out here in the cold for an hour as I explain everything." I saw her consider it in her mind, then she walked into the entryway of my house. I started walking to the living room and started to ask if Marie wanted anything to drink when she grabbed my shoulder.

"I just want to know why, so stop with the formalities and let's talk about this." I just looked at Marie for a second before sighing in defeat and sitting on one end of the couch. Marie sat on the other end.

"So you really want to know why I left?" I asked.

"That's why I'm here, dumbass. You had us all worried when you left, so why didn't you tell anyone? Why not Ed or Eddy? They were your closest friends, so-"

"Were. Eddy turned out to be a complete ass, but yet I do feel bad for not telling Ed. He was the only one who actually cared about me in the end." I spoke, looking down at the ground, remembering what I wish hadn't actually happened.

"Oh, and I didn't? What, did you just think I just hated you? Did you think I didn't actually care about you? Did you-" I cut her off as her voice rose.

"Oh yeah, I totally think someone cares about me when they do the shit you did! You humiliated me in front of my friends, you hurt me, you practically assaulted me so many times, who does that to someone they care about?!" I shouted at her. _Well, this conversation took quite a turn._ I saw her look at me, and her face morph from anger to sadness, and I saw a tear roll down her face before she curled up on the couch and buried her head in her knees. I saw her body trembling, before she said something, so quiet I almost couldn't hear it.

"I'm sorry." I pause at this moment, and realize that what I had just said struck deeper than what I had meant it to. I looked at her for a few seconds before moving a little closer to her, to maybe try and comfort her. The only problem is, I'm almost never in this kind of position. Most of the time if I say something that cutting, I meant it, but now was one of those rare times I didn't mean it.

"I...it's ok Marie, really, I...I didn't mean that...listen. I'm sorry about that, I know you cared about me, it's just that you have a rather...strange way of showing it." I said, trying to cheer her up, and at first I feared it didn't work, because she kept crying. But she slowly raised her head, and looked at me. Her mascara was streaked down her face, and she still had tears running down her face. I just looked at her and waited to see how she would react. Luckily for me, it wasn't violent.

"Thanks Double D. Still though, I didn't know that's how you felt about me." She said in a quiet voice.

"You're welcome, I guess? Anyways, I left because of Eddy. I think you heard about it, but he blamed me for the scams that happened after that whole fiasco with Eddy's brother. For whatever reason, everyone turned on me and bullied me. Ed was the only person who actually talked with me, so I just felt like no one else really cared about me. I decided just to not tell anyone just in case they wanted to retaliate right before I left, and I never told Ed because I didn't want him to tell anyone and I also didn't want to see him so sad."

"Why did Eddy try to blame you? You guys were practically like brothers, what would make him do that?" Marie said, looking at me with a questioned look.

"Well, after a while, I decided to stop helping him with his scams, as I finally felt like we didn't have to do that anymore. I guess he took it as me betraying him, and decided that he didn't want me anyways, so he abandoned me and made everyone else do the same. I felt alone and I went through a lot of sadness, and after a few months of that, my parents told me that we were moving to New York. I saw this as an opportunity to leave my past behind, and...I never really wanted to see it again." As I was saying these last parts, remembering what had happened, how sad I was, how I almost felt like I wasn't even worth it anymore, I hung my head low, looking at the ground. "I just assumed that no one actually cared anymore, but I just recently found out that I was wrong. Anyways, we left and I never told anyone. I practically started a new life in New York, and I've become someone completely different, someone I'm proud of. And now I'm back here, and I never wanted to come back. I just wanted to be where I was happy, and that was in New York. But now I'm back, where I have a lot of bad history, bad memories, and I just wish I was gone. I wish I never lived here." I said as I felt some sadness and anger about my whole past here.

"Don't say that." Marie spoke quietly to me. I looked at her confused. She saw my face before explaining. "Don't say that you never wanted to live here. Otherwise...otherwise what would have happened with Ed and Eddy?" I still had the confused look on my face. She was going to say something different, I could tell from that pause, but I decided to let it go...for now.

"They probably would have killed themselves." I said with a chuckle. Marie made an attempt at a laugh, but it came out as more of letting air out of her nose sharply. I look back at her and see that she still has a face painted with sadness and...something else that I just couldn't quite put my finger on.

"Marie, are you ok?" I ask her, actually wondering if she was fine.

"Yeah, I'm just...I still can't believe that you're back, it's just...so surreal." She seemed to be pondering something in her head, remembering memories of the past. I stay quiet for the next few seconds, still looking at her, wondering what was going through her head. She noticed me, and we made eye contact. She looked back down at her knees, still with her knees against her chest. She looked to be nervous about something, but I didn't know what. It was quiet for a little while longer, before she gave a sigh of defeat.

"It's just that, you meant a lot to me, and I just couldn't believe that you would just leave, and I thought it was because of me, and I just felt so bad and I felt like I had ruined so much. I've been thinking that I caused it for these years, I just..." She had started crying, and I could tell that she was having a hard time getting through this. I didn't know what to do, because here she was again, crying and having a moment of weakness, something very rare for Kankers, and I could tell this was going to take more that just saying "It will be alright."

So, I hugged her. I didn't know what else to do, but I felt like it was the right thing to do. She let go of her knees and hugged me back. She was still crying into her arm, and we sat like this for a minute or two, until her crying had calmed down.

"Thank you." She whispered into her arm, yet loud enough so I would hear it.

"Marie, don't think that it was you, please. You had nothing to do with why I left. I don't want to make you feel guilty, and I just wish that I could have told you that sooner." It felt weird being in this position with my childhood tormentor, but I felt obligated to do so, especially after hearing the sadness Marie went through. I started to release my grip on Marie, but I felt that she clung on for another second before slowly releasing her grip on me. I let her go, but stayed right next to her. She still had her knees pulled up to her chest, but she had stopped crying. We sat like that for a few more minutes, yet it wasn't really an awkward silence. It was more of a time where we were both thinking about the things that had happened, amongst other things.

"So what did you do in New York?" Marie asked, finally breaking the silence.

"Well, I did a lot of stuff. I kept my grades up at a 4.0 at least, I learned to play the guitar, I learned to make music on my computer, I learned how to breakdance-" I heard Marie let out a small laugh when I said that. I looked at her with a small smile on my face. "What?" I asked.

"Nothing, I just can't imagine you breakdancing, that's all." She said as she kept on giggling. My smile got a little wider, wanting to see the reaction of her when she saw me actually doing some of my best moves. There was one problem, though.

"Well too bad for you that I can't show you, cause these rooms are all carpeted or too small." I replied to her little jest at my talents. She continued to chuckle, but I kept going with what I was talking about earlier. "So, anyways," I say, elbowing her at that part, which only makes her giggle harder. "I like exploring abandoned buildings, I've gotten better at lying, and I made lots of friends in New York, just to name a few more things." Her giggling had ceased by now, and she looked at me with actual interest.

"Well, if you've become so good at lying, then how can I trust everything you just said?" She said with a small smirk.

"Sounds like someone doesn't believe. I can go get my guitar and show you that I'm telling the truth." I said as I got up and went to go get my guitar. I came back and at back down next to her, but with a little room between us so I had room for the guitar. I played a song that I had written a while back, one that was a little simple but flowed very nicely. While I was halfway through the song, Marie leaned over and placed her head on my shoulder. I felt my body tense up a bit, and a moment later, felt my face warm up a bit. However, I kept playing without a problem, but my thoughts were interrupted by a question. _Why do I feel embarrassed and nervous all of a sudden? Why when Marie put her head on my shoulder?_ I let these thoughts float around my head with no intent on giving them an answer yet, but I still didn't understand it. Once the song was over, we sat in a silence for a few seconds before I look over at Marie, still on my shoulder. I saw that she had a smile on her face and that her eyes were closed, and she looked a little strange, because her mascara was still in streaks down her face, but after a few more seconds of silence, she opens her eyes and looks at me. She jumped off of my shoulder and looked away, but not before I saw a small blush appear on her face.

"So what about you?" I ask, just to break the silence.

"What do you mean?" She asks, looking back toward me, but I let out a small laugh. "What?" She asks a little more annoyed.

"Oh it's nothing," I say as I get up. "It's just that you happen to have some mascara all over your face, so I'm getting a paper towel so you can get it off." I say as I walk into the kitchen. I grab a paper towel and run it under the sink to get half of it wet. I walk out to Marie and I give her the paper towel. She washes off her face...or at least tries. She missed a couple spots, so I decided to help her.

"Jeez, I would think that you would know how to wash off your own face Marie." I told her as I took the paper towel out of her hands and started to get the spots that she had missed, but she moved her face away.

"Double D, you don't have to treat me like I'm a kid." She said.

"Well you're the one who can't wash off her own face." I retorted with a smirk. She looked back at me with narrow eyes before giving a small smile and standing up.

"Give me that." She said as she took the paper towel from my hands.

"Bathroom is down at the end of the hall!" I call to her as she left the room. When she was gone cleaning her face, I thought about how weird this whole thing is. Here I am, with my childhood tormentor, yet I feel...strange. Not strange in the way that there was something bad, but yet, not something good either. I haven't really felt this feeling before, but the closest I can imagine it is with what I felt with Nazz a long time ago, but this was...different. I couldn't describe it, but I assumed that I would find out later. A minute later, Marie came out to the living room again. She sat by me and I put my guitar to the other side of the couch. I asked the question I asked before.

"So what have you been doing in these four years I've been gone? Last time I remember, you weren't in any of the classes I was in?" I ask her.

"Hey, just because I wasn't in any of your classes in middle school doesn't mean that I'm not smart. I was just lazy and I had better things to do."

"Uh-huh" I reply sarcastically.

"Hey, I'm in calculus, am I not?" She retorted.

"Oh, no you are, I wasn't saying that you aren't smart, I'm saying that you could have easily done that in middle school." I said back to her.

"That's easy for you to say," She said as she elbowed me in the side of my chest. I just laughed and let her keep going.

"I'm into drama and singing, so that's what I'm going for. May has become the athlete in our family, and she's the best in the state, if not country. She's already getting lots of scholarships and schools are competing for her. I just wish I could say the same about me." She looked down with a forlorn look, but quickly got over it.

"I've been in a few plays so far, and I've been noticed on my singing, but I don't have schools competing for me." She added a little venom to the last part, but I understood where she was coming from.

"Schools care more about athletics than the arts, which I find fucked up. I mean, you would have about the same chance of being chosen to be in a major sports team as you would becoming famous for the arts. Just goes to show you that strength beats out beauty, I guess." I looked at Marie and saw that she was smiling and laughing. "What?" I ask, smiling with her.

"Oh nothing, it's just weird hearing you swear." She said as she kept on chuckling.

"Like you haven't heard me swear before, especially in the past few days." I say, still smiling.

"I know, but it's weird hearing it and knowing that you're Double D." I just nod and let her keep going on.

"I'm glad that schools have noticed May and that she's actually in a really good spot, but I also feel like I'm inadequate. I don't know, like, I just feel so...useless. I don't know, it's just-"

"Marie, you're in Calculus and APUSH and other classes that are probably advanced, so why would you feel inadequate? Colleges are going to see that and see someone who's actually advanced, so why are you worried?" I ask her. What I was saying was true, and I actually meant it, but the look of worry did not escape Maries face.

"Well, my family isn't exactly in the best financial position to pay for me going to college. May's practically guaranteed to get into college, Lee doesn't want to go to college, and I don't have any way to pay for college, but I want to go. I have no doubt that I would do well, it's just that, I can't. It just sucks, but there isn't anything I can do about it." I looked at her, and she seemed like she wanted to change it, but as she said, she couldn't do much about it.

"It's ok Marie, you'll find a way. Maybe you could get a job and pay off for college that way." Marie scoffed at my idea.

"What, and be buried under student debt for the rest of my life? No thank you." She said. She flipped the hair away from her eye, but it still covered her right eye. She looked down at her phone, and jumped up.

"Oh, crap, it's already 7! I gotta get home, otherwise May is going to have a fit and Lee will rat on me!" I got up with her, and she readied herself and I walked her to the door. I opened the door and she looked at me with a smirk.

"Always the gentleman, aren't we?" I smiled and nodded my head.

"Of course, Marie. How couldn't I?" She was about to walk out the door when she stopped and turned toward me. She looked nervous and quickly gave me a hug. I hugged her back, and I heard her whisper in my ear, "Thanks for everything, Double D." She let go and walked away. I finally took notice of how she looked. She had a nice hourglass figure, and it wasn't hard to figure out why guys wanted to ask her out. I blushed as if she could read my thoughts, and then she left my vision as she walked past my driveway and toward the trailer park. I was left confused yet again for this feeling, and I didn't know what was causing it. I supposed I would find out later, but for now, I would just let it be.

I did normal things for the rest of the night, and I actually felt inspired to finish my song, and after several hours of working on the last of it, I finally finished it. I felt proud and like I had made something incredible, even though it probably wasn't that good. I didn't care, though, because I was getting somewhere. I was tired, even if it was only 10, but I decided to go to sleep. Tomorrow would hold some more surprises, and while I didn't know at the time, it would actually change things between me and Marie.

 **A.N: Alright, I'm on break now, but I'm getting my wisdom teeth pulled on Tuesday, so I'm not sure when I'll get started on the next chapter. Also, Marie knows now, and the storm is now forming, but what else will happen now? By the way, as I said, I was working on a song just like how Edd was working on one in the story, so here it is:** **watch?v=juKXAL1wlfE** **or if that link doesn't work, search up on YouTube: Grandfather Clock by Pebble Zombie. Alright, I'm out, hope you all enjoyed this chapter and as always, I love your reviews, so go ahead and post your reviews and let me know how you enjoyed this chapter! Until the next chapter, goodbye!**


	10. Chapter 10

**A.N: So, after that whole chapter we finally have Marie come into the picture, even more than before. The wisdom teeth removal went well, so now I'm back writing this chapter, haha! Some of you may have thought that Marie finding out that Edd was back might have been a little sudden, but trust me, we still have a lot to go through. A LOT. Something else has occurred to me and that is that some of the people who have fav/followed this story seem to be KevEdd fans, so I hope that you know this is an Edd and Marie fic. If you do know that and are just following because of the story, thank you! I just thought I should let those people know, so there you go. Also found out that I made a small mistake in the last chapter where the first paragraph was bolded, but luckily it didn't affect the story what-so-ever. Thank you to those who have favorited, followed and reviewed this story so far, I really appreciate it! Alright, onto the next chapter!**

I woke up on Saturday morning, questioning if everything that had seemed to happen happened in a dream or real life. Hoping that it was just a dream, I got up and got my clothes on, but halfway through I saw that my guitar was out of place. _So...it wasn't a dream, was it?_ I felt pretty calm about it, considering that one of the three people who I didn't want to know actually DID find out who I was. I wasn't sure if that was because she was pretty calm about it too, or if it was just because I didn't care at this point. Either way, after what had happened, I trusted Marie not to let my secret out...somewhat. I did feel like she wouldn't go telling everyone, so that made me feel a little better. If it had happened at school though, this situation would have been completely different.

As I went through my morning routine, I thought about how strange Marie was acting. It seemed that even after these four years, she still seems to like me, even just a little. Of course she was mad at me at first, what with that punch she threw at me, but after a while of just talking, she acted like...someone completely different than when we were kids, and she also acted differently than when she would at school. But as I was thinking about that, another thought came into my head: what about how I was acting? When Marie rested her head on my shoulder, I felt a little embarrassed. At the time, I didn't know what it meant, but now, I didn't feel like it was too important. _I probably just felt awkward, considering I was talking to my childhood tormentor, who also had a crush on me, one of the people who I hadn't talked to in four years. I didn't really expect her to show a soft side, I guess. That's why I felt that way, I was just confused and a little awkward!_ I was happy that I figured it out so fast, and it was quite easy to explain in a way that wouldn't have made that whole situation even more awkward for me.

I decided to go onto YouTube and go song searching and read a little bit, something I like to do to pass time and find good songs. I went on my favorite channel to find new music and put the songs on shuffle while I read a good fiction book about four children with special powers that they all find throughout the series. I had read the four book series a while ago, but I wanted to read it again as it was an incredible series, and just to keep the adventures fresh in my head. As much as I loved real life, there was a distinct charm in how you could escape the problems of your own life and live the life of a character in a completely made up world. Add in some awesome music and you have yourself an amazing trip through a world made up in the imagination of someone else.

After an hour and a half of reading, my eyes began to tire, so I closed my computer and tossed my book onto my bed. Noticing it was a little too early to eat lunch, I messed around with my guitar. After I played my guitar for a while and ate lunch, I was at a loss at what to do. Luckily at noon, that question was answered with a knock at my door. I opened the door to find Marie standing there in a dark blue hoodie with a logo I couldn't recognise printed on the front. She was wearing some worn out converse with a pair of blue skinny jeans.

"Hey Edd." She said, seemingly a little nervous.

"Hi Marie. Decided to come around again?" I ask, wondering what she was doing back here.

"Yeah, I didn't want to deal with what Lee and May are fighting about in the trailer, which is probably some crappy food for lunch." Her face showed a little disgust as she thought about the meal her sisters were fighting over.

"Well too bad for you, but I just ate lunch. I might have some leftovers in-"

"No no no, I'm not that hungry, actually. I just wanted to hang out here for now. Also we never really finished our conversation yesterday." She said, cutting me off.

"Oh, alright. Come in then." I told her, motioning toward the entryway. I couldn't help but feel awkward again. I didn't see something like this happening when Marie found out who I was. I expected yelling, crying, and other sorts of crazy happenings, not...a fast formed...friendship? I guess that's what this is, but I still think it's too early to tell, so once again, I'll let things play out on their own. She came in and immediately sat on the couch, so I closed the door and went and sat on the opposite end.

"Hey, sorry about what happened yesterday." Marie told me.

"Sorry about what?" I asked.

"Well, punching you for starters, and for acting all emotional yesterday. By the way, if you tell anyone about that, I'm not afraid to kill you." She said, giving me an evil smirk with it. I just chuckled and waited for her to continue. "Me being all emotional was just because I hadn't seen you in like four years. It's just so weird because you were here one day, and then you just weren't. It caught all of us off guard, I hope you know that. We were all worried for you, and wondered where you went when we couldn't find you." There was a short silence, as if she was remembering something, but it was quickly cut short. "And now you just come back, without a word. Why haven't you said anything to anyone else yet?" She questioned me. I told her why I had left, which led to more questions and answers about life in Peach Creek. Eventually, we found ourselves in an awkward silence, so I decided to cut it.

"So you never answered my question yesterday, why don't you want to be known as smart?" I asked Marie.

"It's just another thing that people can use behind my back as an insult. I've had people try to bully me for a long time, and when you left is when it got really bad. I was having some...problems after you left and people took advantage of it and started bullying me. One day, I kind of snapped and attacked this kid for calling me an 'emo freak.' After that point, I started to defend myself from people calling me names and I became this huge bully at high school. I can stand up for myself, but that doesn't mean that what people say doesn't sting just a little." She ended off her answer with a little bit of bitterness. I never understood how smart could be used as an insult, and I still couldn't.

"How can smart be used as an insult, though?" I asked. A small grin flashed across her face before she replied.

"You should know, what with Kevin and Eddy always calling you 'dork.'" She said.

"Yeah they called me dork countless times, but I was never offended by it. Being smart isn't something bad, and I don't know how it became an insult, because it's really a compliment." I replied.

"Easy for you to say, because it seems that everyone loves you now." _Well, I couldn't argue about that, I guess_ I thought.

"Yeah, but still, why take a compliment as an insult? If they resort to calling you 'smart' they've run out of actual insults. Same thing goes for things you can't change about yourself, like your race or gender. I've seen countless fights like that, where someone insults another person because of something they can't change, and it doesn't even count as an insult. If someone tried to use 'smart' as an insult, I'd just say 'oh, so you're a dumbass then?'" When I ended my little rant with that, Marie just busted out laughing. I looked at her, and started chucking myself.

"Oh, I should use that at some point!" She exclaimed as she kept on laughing.

"Let me know when you use it, because I want to see their reaction to it!" I said, laughing as I imagined what would happen. After some more laughing being shared between us, Marie asked me a question.

"So, were you ever bullied in New York?"

"No, I was lucky enough to become friends with one of the most popular kids just a couple days after I got there." I answered. "After a while, I became friends with a relatively tough guy, and he's who helped me bulk up a little bit and get me into breakdancing. Also, there was almost never any bullies at my school, because if someone was ever bullied, everyone else would defend that person." Marie had her eyebrows raised, as if she was considering that school as a place to go.

"Hmm. That sounds like a really cool place. I wish I could go to New York and just escape my whole situation here. So how is it like in New York? Is it cool with all of the tall buildings around you?" She asked me. It's a question that I had a simple answer but complicated explanation to.

"It's extremely enchanting from afar, and it puts you into perspective when you're in the middle of it." Marie gave me a questioning look, as if she had no idea what my answer meant.

"What do you mean?" The question I get after every time I give that answer.

"Well, when you're really far away from the actual city, like along the outer edges, you can see everything and just how big it is, but it looks so small too. Nothing is moving from what you see, but in reality, everything is moving in that city. You can see the sun's reflections on the buildings and you wonder just how massive the shadow that building is casting. The city looks so small from far away, it almost looks like a model." I saw Marie process everything I had just said, but there was another half to my response. "When you're in the middle of it all, it's chaos, but it seems so organized. It's as if all of the chaos, the people traveling on the sidewalks, the horns honking and the congested streets, it's as if that's the only way that it could be, as if it was made for that sole purpose. When you crane your neck up just so you can see the buildings that surround you, it really makes you feel small, but then you realize that all of this was made by people like you, and then you realize just how much power you have." I looked back to Marie, and saw her face looking off into the distance, trying to imagine a place similar to what I had just described. The room was quiet for a long while, but then Marie looked back at me.

"That sounds so cool. I really want to go there now, it just sounds so amazing." She said in a quiet tone, almost as if she was afraid to scare off the image she had created in her mind.

"It's really nice there. I know it's a concrete jungle and everything, but I lived on the outer edge, so I was able to enjoy the buildings from far away." I added.

"So why did you guys move there?"

"My parents moved to New York because there were some better job opportunities there than here. We moved back because we didn't have to be there all the time and so we could be closer to family and friends." I replied. For the next hour or so we talked about all sorts of things, ranging from my urbexing experiences to breakdance to the music I make. After a while of getting asked questions about myself, I decided to ask Marie about what she's been doing for the past four years.

"So you said that you're into singing and... drama, right?" Marie nodded, and a small smile appeared on her face. "Well, what kind of plays have you been in?" Her eyes drifted up as she tried to remember what she has acted in.

"Weeeeelllll...I've been in a play called 'Our Town,' I've been in 'Noises Off,' and I tried to get into 'Grease' but they told me that I would either have to wear a wig or get rid of my blue hair." Marie seemed to be a little disappointed that she wasn't in "Grease," but I didn't really know why they would kick her off for having blue hair.

"Wait, they kicked you off for having blue hair? Isn't that against a policy of some sort?" I saw Marie shrink up just a little bit before she told me exactly what happened.

"Well, I may have been kicked off for more than that…" I looked at her with confusion before she decided to continue. "The costume director told me that my hair was a problem, and I kind of overreacted and got in a huge argument with her over it, which eventually lead to me saying things that got me kicked out of that play." She avoided eye contact with me, but I was just laughing in my seat. "What's so funny?" She asked me with a small grin.

"I guess you didn't change in that aspect." I said once I was done laughing. Marie just rolled her eyes and shook her head. "So, you said you can sing, right?"

"Yeah," Marie replied.

"Well then why don't you sing?" I asked. I saw a blush run across her face, and I could tell she wasn't about to start singing. Her response confirmed my suspicion.

"Oh no way. Not without some music or something to help me along."

"I can get my guitar if you want." I said as I got up with a grin on my face. Marie seemed to get even more embarrassed and grabbed my arm to stop me from getting my guitar. She tugged my arm so I would sit down, but instead it led to me slipping, falling half onto the couch, and rolling to the ground. There was a moment of silence before I started laughing. I heard Marie start laughing too, and I got back up onto my feet.

"Well thanks for that, Marie." I said in a sarcastic tone. Before she could reply though, I ran off to my room to get my guitar. I wasn't going to let her get away that easily. I came back in with my guitar, and I saw her face change from confusion, as to why I left so suddenly, to dread when she saw what I had in my hands.

"Oh, God. I'm not going to do this, I hope you know that Double D." She said, hiding her embarrassed face. I just smiled before replying.

"Oh come on. I'm gonna breakdance for you later, and you're not going to just sing something? It can just be something really simple, come on, please?" I asked as nicely as I could. I saw her contemplate it in her head, but she shook her head with a nervous smile. I didn't want to keep pushing her, so I just put down my guitar and a small silence filled the room. We managed to fill that gap with a little small talk, but it seemed Marie was getting bored with just sitting around.

"So, do you want to get out of here and go somewhere else? There are probably some cool places that you haven't seen yet. Let me think of one, hold on." She said as she began searching for a place in her mind. As she was thinking, three words popped back into my head from about two weeks ago. _Let's start again._ As I remembered these words, I thought that this whole situation turned out to be a lot better than what I was expecting. Instead of getting killed by Marie or having her spread the word about who I was, I was actually forming a kind of friendship with her. _This was definitely better than having Marie kill me, but it would be weird at school I would think, what how we were fighting on Friday. How will we act then?_ I thought. As I was about to ask, Marie shouted out where she wanted to go.

"OH! I know where! There's this cool area I found over by the creek, it has a nice view and I found it a couple years ago, so I don't know if you know about it. It takes a while to walk there, but it is really nice over there. I've gone fishing there a couple times, but I've never caught anything up there. I don't know what we could do there, but it's a nice place anyways. What do you think?"

"I think it would be better to do that later, I just wanted to sit around for most of the day, actually. I would like to go to the little candy shop and see what they have though." I said. I felt pretty lazy today, so I wasn't going to put in the effort to go and walk all the way over to where this little hideout was. I saw Marie nod at the idea, smile, and get up.

"Alright, I'm game. I have a couple dollars on me, so I could buy something while I'm there."

"Well I have money if you want to buy something that's a little over your range."

"Aww, that's sweet!" She said in a mock voice that was similar to the one she used on me when we were younger. I just laughed it off, grabbed some shoes and my key, and walked to the door. We were walking along the sidewalk, just outside my house, when the thought of school came back into my head.

"So, what about school? How are we gonna act towards each other?" I asked. I saw Marie pause to think about what I asked, but then she came up with something.

"I wonder how everyone will react if we just come in acting like really good friends, haha!" She said as she started laughing. I couldn't help but laugh with her, thinking about how everyone would act if we actually went through with this plan. And as ridiculous as it seemed, I kind of wanted to go through with it.

"I want to try this now, haha!" I said as I kept on laughing. I noticed Maries laugh die down as she looked at me, and I looked at her and saw a questioned look on her face, accompanied by a grin.

"You actually want to do that? What would we say if they asked why we're all chummy now?" I laughed yet again at her question, or more so, her wording.

"Chummy? And yes, I want to see what everyone would do. But seriously, who uses chummy?" I asked while chuckling.

"Hey, don't criticize me on my choice of words! And what about what you would say when we were younger, huh? Seriously, how did you even know half of those words?" I saw that she was wearing an angry face, but I could tell it was all just acting. After all, we were...friends, right? I can call us friends at this point, I would assume.

"A lot of studying and paying attention to the real world. I was fascinated with the English language, and I would study different words and different meanings for those words. I was kind of a show off when I was younger, but I still know those words like the back of my hand. I just don't use them anymore because I tired of the constant questioning of what I was saying. It was almost as if I was speaking a foreign language, so I just decided to simplify my speech."

"Wow, I wasn't expecting a full explanation, Double D, haha!" She said.

"Sorry," I muttered out, feeling slightly embarrassed. We walked for a little bit longer, and before we knew it, we were at the shop. I opened the door for her, as I do with all my friends, and even complete strangers. Marie decided to poke a little fun at me yet again for this small act.

"I'm so glad my _boyfriend_ is such a gentleman." She said, extra stress on the word boyfriend. I hadn't heard her use that word towards me in a long time, it felt weird, but I was fine with messing around a little.

"Hey, do you want me to pay for you, or not?" I said, grinning at yet another one of our spats, but this time, it wasn't like the angry one at school. Instead, it was like the way I acted with my friends at school in New York, in a way. We walked around the store, looking at all sorts of candy and other sweets, and I noticed Marie sampling some of the candy when the store owner wasn't looking. Eventually, we both chose what we wanted to buy, and surprise surprise, Marie chose something that was just out of her price range. Oh well, I couldn't get mad at her. Who could pass up the opportunity of free food? We walked home eating our candy, and she parted ways with a simple "goodbye" as she walked off back to the trailer park. The rest of the day was pretty normal after that point, but I kept thinking about Monday and how everyone would react to Marie and my interaction to each other. I laughed at the thought, but it would have to wait for another day.

. . . .

Sunday came and went, mostly uneventful if it weren't for my parents coming home. We talked about my first week back and how it went, and we also talked about their adventures. Unfortunately, time went by too fast and before I knew it, I had to get some sleep for tomorrow. I woke back up on a new day that was going to be different than Friday, and possibly funnier than Friday, too. After doing all of my morning routines, I was actually able to be dropped off by my mom, something that had become a rarity at this point. My parents would have to leave while I was at school, but I elected to walk home, so that way I wouldn't have to stuff my bike in the back of our car.

I got to school, and instead of going to the popular group like I normally would have, I sat down at the wall I sat at for lunch on Monday and Tuesday last week. I sat there listening to music for a while, but I noticed Marie walking up to me. I got up and stopped my music, just as she started talking.

"So wait, we never figured this out on Saturday, what are we gonna tell people if they ask why we're friends?" Luckily for me, I had this planned out on Saturday, but I never got the chance to tell Marie.

"Just intimidate them. Give them your death glare and say something like 'does it matter to you' or along the lines of that. Who said we needed a backstory?" I saw her grin and chuckle as I gave my explanation.

"What makes you think I have a 'death glare'?" She asked with finger quotes at the death glare part.

"Come on, don't deny your death glare. Besides, I've seen it firsthand." I said, referring to our previous spats on Thursday and Friday. Her grin widened as I said this, and I could tell that she liked the idea already.

"That's right, I almost forgot about that. Anyways, this should be fun sixth period, see you then Double D." She said as she started to walk off, but I corrected her just as she turned around.

"I'm Daniel, remember?" She turned around when I said this, at first confused, and then she understood what I was talking about, but then her face turned into one of slight concern. She walked back up to me, and now that face was scaring me a little.

"By the way, May may have found out about you." Now my face turned to confusion when she said this, but she decided to clarify a little bit. "Let me rephrase. May probably knows who you are and that you're back." _Oh, well, crap._ I thought.

"So May know then? How?" Just as I asked this, though, the bell rang.

"Oh well, looks like I can't tell you, bye!" Marie said as she walked away to her class. I just sighed in defeat and went off to my class. As it did the first week, the first half of the day went by just as it had on Friday, except that when it got to calculus Marie wasn't sending me angry glares, instead they were friendly looks. Lunch ended up changing the monotony of the whole day by a lot. I got to the table with Kenny and the other popular kids. I was a little late out, and I saw that everyone but David and Jackie was there. _Wow, I remembered their names? I'm usually trash with names._ I thought. As I got closer to the table, I saw May look up and her eyes got a little wider and a smile formed on her face. Before I could sit down, May stood up and asked me a question.

"Dou-Daniel, can I see you privately?" I heard Kenny start to say "ooooohhh" in a joking manner, but laughed and told us he was joking. I nodded my head and she led me to a place where there was only a couple people sitting around, eating their lunch. She quickly looked around, before quietly whispering something.

"Double D?" I looked at her and nodded, knowing that this was coming at some point. She surprised me with a very strong hug and she actually picked me up, despite being a foot and a half shorter than me. "Oh my god! Double D, you're back!" She exclaimed as she put me back down, and I was out of breath as she practically crushed my lungs.

"Yeah, I'm back. So Marie told you, huh?" I said once I regained enough oxygen to actually talk.

"Yeah, she did. I noticed that she had changed and was a lot happier, so I decided to spy on her on Saturday, and I heard her talking about you. I walked in on her and asked why she was talking about you. After a little arguing, she told me that you were back, and told me to keep it a secret. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone, but you should tell Ed at some point. Just be careful when you tell him, because he's likely to tell everyone." At the mention of Ed, I smiled. As much as I would love to tell him, I knew that once I did, the ball was in motion, and that my secret would not be safe. Although, I guess that the ball already was in motion, what with Marie finding out and now May. Still though, I didn't want Eddy to find out, because I figure it will be a fight over something in the past. I didn't like him for it, in fact, I hated him for it, but I want to avoid a fight that will end nothing between us. May caught my attention by snapping her fingers in my face.

"Edd? You in there?" I nodded.

"Yeah, I'm still here, just thinking things through. Let's get back to the table before they start to wonder what we're doing." I replied.

"Don't worry about that, I've said plenty of times that Ed is who I'm after." She said.

"Still after him, huh? I've heard that you two have made amends as of late." I asked as I looked at May.

"Yeah, I still like him, so what? I chose him for a reason, Mr. Smartypants. Seriously, you should come over to the trailer so we can catch up. I'm sure Marie would also like the company too." She said, nudging me with her elbow.

"If you're talking about her liking me, then you're wrong, because we've just become friends. She's a lot more tame than when we were younger if she does still like me." I told May. She just scoffed as we got back to the table. We sat down at our normal spots, and it seemed that now I had my own spot, but now I found someone sitting next to me. On Friday, I had this side of the table to myself, but I found Sandra sitting on the same bench as I sat before. I sat next to her, but at first I didn't think much of it. We had a pretty normal conversation, one that I would have with my friends back in New York. Some time passed and it was fifth period. As time kept going along, I couldn't help but smile at what was likely going to happen next period. I could hardly wait for it to be sixth period, and eventually, it came.

I took a little extra time walking to APUSH this time, and I could hardly keep my composure. I walked into the classroom, and saw Marie, standing there with a pissed off face. At first I was worried, wondering if I had done something in the past two hours that could have set her off, but I saw her angry face melt into a grin as I walked up to the table. At first, I missed the fact that everyone else in the class was watching us as I walked into the class, as they were probably expecting a big fight to ensue. I got up to the table, and put my stuff down as Marie started to talk.

"So?" She said, with a slight grin.

"So what?" I asked, feeling the corners of my mouth tug upwards, yearning to form a smile.

"No 'hi' or 'how you doing?'" She asked, mocking a hurt face. At this point, I couldn't contain my smile, and let it show.

"Hi, Marie. I hope you had a pleasant weekend." I said as I sat down. She smiled and sat down as well.

"Thanks, and I did. Did you have a nice weekend?" She asked. It was at this point that I noticed how quiet this room was, but I also noticed that the two other kids in our group were still standing behind us, not wanting to sit down just yet.

"Oh it was a lovely weekend. I got to spend it with a friend and I was able to spend some of it with my family." I stated, still with a smile on my face. I noticed a couple of the kids around us were wide eyed, knowing that just a weekend before we were at each other's throats, wondering what had changed between us. None of them were brave enough to try and ask, but that was what was probably on everyone's mind. We ended our small conversation and the bell rang, so the two kids who were in our group finally sat down and put down their backpacks. For the rest of the period, anyone who looked at Marie funny got a glare from her that kept them silent. It was quite entertaining to see this kind of stuff happen, and while normally bullying is something I am completely against, Marie wasn't really bullying anyone, just giving them glares every so often. Although, I do know why everyone fears Marie, and while I don't agree with what she did, it's all in the past. _Maybe I should feel the same way about Eddy...I'll get to that when I get there. Who knows, maybe I can get him out of all this trouble he's been digging himself into from what I've heard._ I thought a little bit more about Eddy, and then about Ed. I really wanted to see Ed again, but did I really want to deal with Eddy? At this point, I knew that everyone else had forgiven me for what Eddy had blamed me for, so I wasn't worried about them. Eddy would be my only problem, and as much as I didn't want to deal with him, I decided that I wanted to catch up with Ed even more. Dealing with Eddy would be a pain, but I think that seeing Ed again would make up for that. So, I decided that I would talk to Ed on Tuesday, as I still wanted to prepare myself for Tuesday, knowing that most likely, it won't just be Ed that will find out who I am. After thinking about this for a while, I realized that it was almost time to leave, and deciding to mess around with everyone in the class a little more, I started talking to Marie.

"So what are you gonna do later today?" I asked her.

"Probably fight with my sisters over something stupid, as always." She replied.

"I found out what happened with May. She practically suffocated me at lunch, haha!" I said with a laugh. Once again, I noticed that the classroom was silent yet again as Marie and I conversed. Marie laughed with me too, but I remembered what May had told me when we were talking at lunch. "OH! Yeah, she also said I should come over and catch up a little bit. So should I come over later today?" I asked.

"Yeah, you can come over later today. Maybe you can help me with my homework too." She chuckled. The bell rang and we walked out, still making small talk and enjoying the faces of everyone around us. We walked all the way to our homes, splitting up when we needed to go separate ways. After an hour or two, I decided that I could head over to the trailer park. Eventually, I made it and knocked on the door. May answered and invited me in, and I noticed that Lee was nowhere to be seen. We talked about all my adventures, all of May's accomplishments, and other stories that the other may have missed. We talked for a good two hours, and as they wanted me to have dinner with them, I refused, seeing that I had already eaten before I came over. It was nice to catch up with them, even if they were Ed, Eddy and my enemies in the past. I found that Lee had gone out with her friends, but neither May nor Marie knew where to.

"God, this feels so weird." I said at some point in our conversation. "I mean, four years ago I would have been fighting to get out of here, and now I've come here to talk about what we've been doing for the past four years. It's just so...strange." I finished off.

"Same. Not only that, just how much we've all changed is crazy too, I mean, I knew I had seen you from somewhere when we first met, I just didn't know where. Now I know and it all makes sense, but I feel the same way, it's just so weird." May added.

"I'm just glad that we're friends now and not enemies like before." Marie said.

"I know, that felt weird too. I don't know what I was expecting, but I didn't expect us to be friends so fast, I mean… I guess I expected you to be mad at me." I remarked. Marie laughed at that last part.

"I was mad at you. Do you not remember that punch I threw at you, or did I give you amnesia from it?" She started laughing again, and May and I joined in as well. We moved onto another topic, and after yet another hour into my visit, I decided to call it quits.

"Aw, you didn't even help me with my homework." Marie said with a faux pout as I was leaving.

"Well you should have mentioned it sooner. Seriously though, I can help you with your homework if you want." I told her.

"I think she wants you to help her with more than just her homework!" May shouted from back in the trailer.

"Shut it, May!" Marie yelled back with a small blush on her face.

"Still acting like sisters, I see." I remarked, remembering that the Kanker sisters had arguments like this quite often when we were younger.

"As always. Well, I'll see you tomorrow!" Marie said as I left.

"Goodbye!" I waved and left the trailer park. _Tomorrow is going to have a lot in store for me,_ I thought. I didn't know what it would actually have in store for me until later though, but I could hardly wait to tell Ed(and quite possibly the whole cul-de-sac) that I was back. _I'll just wait and see._ I thought, walking down the street, heading back towards my house.

 **A.N: Things will be picking up speed yet again in the next chapter, so let's see how everything will go down in the next chapter. As always, reviews are appreciated, and I'll see you in the next chapter!**


	11. Chapter 11

**A.N: So, for some reason, the reviews for chapter 10 are not showing up on the review page for me, so I can't reply to them for now. Hopefully that gets fixed in the near future, but anyways, I'm here with the new chapter. Hope you all like it and like where this story is going, and be sure to leave some reviews! P.S: 08SnowWhite20, I like how you're still here after you thought you weren't going to like it at first. Just wanted to tell you that, because I can't reply to your reviews. Oh, and Eigomi, thank you for your reviews too!**

 _Today is the day...today, I get to talk to Ed…_ I thought as a smile creeped onto my face, knowing that after four years, I will talk to the one person who stayed with me through thick and thin. But my smile faded away as I remember that while he didn't leave me, I left him. And with no warning, at that. I hoped that he would forgive me for that, and I was positive that he would, but the thought of what I had done weighed in the back of my mind. I decided that I would tell him after school, maybe around four or five. The day went by pretty normally, with me talking with Marie in the morning, going to class, talking with the popular group at lunch, and getting on with the rest of my day. However, all throughout the day, I kept twiddling my fingers, or bouncing my leg in nervousness. I knew that everyone could soon know who I was by the end of this day, _Why am I so nervous though?_ I thought. _I know that everyone has forgiven me, so why am I acting so nervous?_ But I knew why I was nervous. Deep down I still had some fear that I would be rejected or hated by the cul-de-sac kids. It was unlikely that that would happen, but it was an irrational feeling that I simply could not shake.

When we were released from our classes, it would have felt like an uninteresting day with no highlights, but I had a feeling that this was the calm before the storm. Fortunately for me, this storm was almost sure to bring in a happy Ed, so I was on board with it. I walked to my house and got there at 2:40, so I decided that I should wait at my home for an hour or two before breaking the news to Ed. I messed around with my guitar as I normally did, but tired of it and went to watch videos on YouTube. While I was in the middle of one of the videos, I heard a knock at my door. I went out and saw that it was Marie.

"Oh, hi! I didn't expect you to come over!" I said surprised.

"Well yeah. After all, you never helped me with my homework yesterday, so I decided that you owed me." She said, and I noticed her backpack was slung over her shoulders.

"Um, actually, I had other plans for today, but maybe tomorrow?" I asked, hoping that she could hold off for today. She put on a disappointed face and her shoulders sagged just a little.

"Aw, really? Dang, I was hoping we could hang out a little today." She replied, clearly down about the circumstances.

"Well, I'm sorry for that. Oh! I never told you what I was going to do today, did I?" I asked, a little more excited than what I intended.

"No…?" Marie said, confused as to where my sudden burst of excitement came from.

"I was actually going to go and tell Ed that I was back! I was going to head over to his house in a little while, so I guess we could hang out for a few minutes." I said, trying to make up my not being able to help her with her homework. She smiled at what I had said, and visibly perked up.

"Sure! Hey, can I go with you to see Ed? I want to see his reaction too." She questioned, and I nodded. I told her to come in, and I watched a couple more videos with Marie before it was time to leave and see Ed. I could hardly wait to see the big guys face when he found out. It would definitely be worth it to see him. Marie and I walked toward Ed's house and as I got up to the door, I got more nervous with each step towards the door. Once again, an irrational fear that he would hate me lingered in the back of my mind, but I still couldn't shake it. Marie must have noticed that when I got up to the door I was shaking slightly. For how much tougher I thought I had become, I always had nervous and shy me poke out quite often.

"Hey, Double D, It'll be fine, trust me." She said laying a hand on my shoulder. I looked toward her and grinned slightly. I looked back to the door and knocked on it. At first nothing could be heard, but then I heard the distant but distinct sound of someone's feet walking toward the door. The door opened...and there was Sarah. I sighed a small sigh of relief, worrying that if Ed had answered the door he would have yelled out my name, alerting all the others of my presence. I would much rather see them all individually if I could.

"Oh, hi Daniel!" She said, quite excited. "...oh, and hi Marie." She said with much less enthusiasm. I don't know why Sarah seemed to have a dislike to Marie, but I brushed it off.

"Hi Sarah, I actually wanted to see Ed, is he in?" I asked.

"Yeah, I think he's in his room doing his homework, why?" She asked, looking inside the house toward his room.

"Well, I just wanted to talk to him, because we didn't finish a conversation we had earlier at school." I replied. She looked back to me.

"So then why is Marie here?" She asked, a little bit of malice in her voice I winced a little at her tone, but kept silent about it.

"I was gonna help her with her homework after I talked with Ed, but she came over to my house a little early, so I had her tag along." I said.

"Alright," Sarah said, sounding a little suspicious. "I'll go get Ed, you can just come in and sit down on the couch." She said as she walked to Ed's room. Marie and I went and sat down on the couch. Marie sat right next to me and looked at me with a big smile.

"I can't wait to see his face when he finds out it's you!" She said in a whisper. "If you didn't know, we're kind of friends too because of how often he hangs out with May, so I know he'll go ballistic!" She whispered and looked back to Ed's room with a grin. A few moments later, Ed came out of his room, towering so high that he had to duck a little to avoid hitting his head on the top of the doorway. Sarah followed him out and looked at me with a smile. _I wonder what's going to happen when_ she _finds out._ I thought to myself. Ed gave me a weird look as he came up to us and sat in the chair opposite to us. He seemed to stare even harder, and it seemed a little strange, considering that neither of us had said a word to the other yet. I couldn't help myself, and allowed myself to smile, showing the gap in my teeth. When I did this, I saw Ed's eyes open wide, and he leaned back in his seat a little, but a second later, I saw a smile grow from ear to ear on his face.

"DOUBLE D!" He shouted and leapt across the gap between us and almost crushed me with his hug. I had the air knocked out of me, between a happy Ed and a couch, I could hardly breathe.

"Ed…" I said, gasping for air as he sobbed into my shoulder, but I could still see that he was smiling as wide as possible. "Ed...I can't...breathe…" I let out with the rest of my oxygen. He backed up a little bit, just in front of my face. We were both wearing huge smiles, but then I heard a voice from across the room I had forgotten about.

"DOUBLE D?! THAT'S REALLY YOU?" I heard Sarah practically shout from across the room. I looked over Ed's shoulder as he turned to face his little sister.

"It's Double D! Back from the dead! The Gods have given us a gift!" He said back to his sister, his voice shaking from him crying. Before I could get another word out, he crushed me yet again with a hug of his.

"OOF!" was all I could get out before all the oxygen left my body. But this time, Ed picked me up, seemingly without any effort and spun around with me.

"Double D! You're back! After all these years you're back!" He said spinning around with me.

"Ed...put me...down...please…" I said in a quiet voice. He looked at me with sad puppy eyes, but put me down anyways. I looked up at him and he looked down at me, and I finally spoke to him instead of telling him to put me down.

"Ed, it's been a long time, hasn't it?" I asked with a big grin on my face. His smile returned to his face.

"Too long Double D, way too long!" He said as he hugged me again, but this time not crushing me to death. I hugged him back and chuckled a little. I looked over to Marie who had a huge smile as Ed and I reunited. It was great to see Ed again, and I really wanted to get a conversation going with him. We broke the hug but stayed standing right next to each other.

"So, how's it been for you for the past four years Ed?" I asked him, and I saw him get a sort of panicked look on his face before bursting out.

"I HAVE SO MUCH I HAVE TO SHOW AND TELL YOU DOUBLE D! I HAVE SO MANY STORIES AND DRAWINGS ANd comics and movies and…" he faded out as he ran down the stairs into his room to get all the things I think he wanted to show me. I saw that Sarah was still standing there in shock looking at me with her mouth open in shock.

"Edd, that's really you?" Sarah asked quietly. I gave her a smile.

"Yeah, I'm Edd. Feels weird that you saw me a couple weeks ago after I moved in and you didn't find out it was me. To be honest, I was terrified when you came up to me, I didn't want people to know because I thought that you all still hated me after what Eddy had told you guys." I told Sarah. At the mention of Eddy's name, her face twisted into disgust.

"Ugh, please, I'm glad that loser has been out of our hair. Luckily Ed doesn't hang out with him anymore after my parents told him that he needed to stay away from him. And Double D, we couldn't stay mad at you for that, especially after we found out it was Eddy." She said, and she started to walk over to me, but Ed came bursting out of his room with armfulls of comics, movies, drawings, and I'm pretty sure I saw some sponges in there. _And is that a… gravy bowl?_ I thought as I saw a familiar looking object in his arms.

"ANDTHERESASPACEPIRATETHATGOESAROUNDANDFIGHTSOFFALIENS" He shouted, even more excited than when he went down into his room. He dropped everything onto the table in the middle of the room, and I was worried that the whole table would break in half from the amount of items on it. I could see Marie laughing in my peripherals, and I knew that I would have to try to calm Ed down.

"Ed," I said, trying to gain his attention, which worked, but not quite how I expected. He turned to me, and grabbed me by the shoulders looking at me with the most serious face he could come up with and looked into my eyes.

"Have you seen the newest Star Wars movie?" He said in a dead serious tone.

"Uhm, no?" I spoke confused as to why he was so serious and where this conversation was going. His eyes got wide when I said no, and he picked me up and slung me over his shoulder, surprising me.

"ED! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" I shouted as he started running to the front door.

"YOU HAVE TO SEE IT DOUBLE D IT'S AMAZING!" He shouted back and he opened the door.

"ED CALM DOWN, MAN! I DON'T HAVE ANY MONEY ANYWAYS!" I shouted. Ed came to a halt just outside his house.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that." He said as he put me down. _Some things never change, do they?_ I asked myself in my head while chuckling. I heard laughing from in the house, and Sarah came out, looking mad at Ed.

"Ed, what were you doing!?" She yelled at Ed, but not in an extremely loud manner. Ed looked at her with a sheepish smile on his face.

"Sorry, Sarah, I just can't believe that he hasn't seen it yet!" He exclaimed.

"Yes, well, I can see it with you later. I think you have things that you want to show me in there, right?" I asked pointing back inside his house. He turned back to the door and looked back at me.

"Oh! Yeah, I have so much to show you!" He said as he grabbed me and dragged me inside. He set me down on the couch where I was sitting before, and Marie was still laughing at what had just occurred. I looked at the pile of comics, movies, and drawings on the table. Ed reached in and grabbed a comic and tossed it to me before looking at me with expectant eyes. The comic's title was "Space Pirates: A Journey to the Unknown." I had never heard of this comic before, but it looked to be halfway decent, which was a plus. _It seems Ed has improved his taste in comics,_ I thought. Before I had time to even look through the comic, another thing was tossed at me, and it looked to be a drawing. I looked at Ed and he looked back with hopeful eyes. When my eyes gazed back down toward the drawing, I figured out that it was Ed's work. It was a half human half octopus pirate, from what I could see. It was a man with two swords, and eyepatch, tattered clothing, and a toothy smile that you almost feel what the menacing glare meant. His bottom half was the octopus part, with his purple and white tentacles in a twisted form as he was standing. It was an amazing piece of art, with many details, and I could see that Ed had shaded and outlined the drawing, even putting in small details in here and there. I felt someone close to my shoulder, and I could see in my peripherals that Marie was looking at it as well. I looked back up at Ed, who was wearing a face of pure excitement, just waiting for my opinion on it.

"Ed, you drew this?" I asked, in complete disbelief. I saw that grin that I thought couldn't get any wider grow even more.

"YES! What do you think Double D?" He asked, I looked at the drawing once again and looked back up at Ed.

"It's extraordinary, Ed. How long did this take you?" I asked and I could see Ed start thinking.

"Well, a couple weeks total. I drew him in a couple days and the rest was everything else." I looked at him dumbfounded. _I was never an artist, but I can tell this is amazing!_

"How long have you been drawing?" Marie asked from beside me. Ed looked up in thought.

"A long time, why?" Ed questioned.

"Well, it's just that I've kind of known you for a long time, and I've never seen your drawings." Marie was in a state of shock quite similar to mine.

"I don't really like showing it off, so that's why." Ed said embarrassed, looking away.

"Well, Ed, I must say, you have a talent." I said, smiling warmly at him. He smiled back.

"Thanks Double D." He replied.

"This is really good, Ed, you should see if you can get a job at someplace for this kind of stuff." Marie said.

"I've thought about it, and I've sent my art to one company, but they didn't reply to me." He said, a little down.

"Well you gotta send it in to more than one company, man!" Marie told Ed. His face remained disappointed as he thought about the art company.

"I know, but this was the place that I wanted to get into most. They made my favorite comics when I was younger." Ed explained.

"Oh, are you talking about those cheesy comics you used to read when we were kids, Ed?" I asked in a tone that suggested that it was a bad company, but it went completely over his head.

"Yeah! I loved those comics! They were so awesome and fun!" Before he went too far off tangent, I cut him off.

"Ed, are there possibly...any other companies you would like to work for?" I asked, trying not to hurt his feelings over his childhood comics. He thought for a few seconds before replying.

"Yeah, there are some others, but I REALLY wanted to work for this company, Double D!" He said, giving me huge puppy eyes. _Some things_ really _never change, do they?_ I thought.

"Well, are you sure you want to work with that company?" I asked, but I got a reply from Marie instead.

"Just let him do his own thing, Double D. If he wants to work there, then let him. I think he could do it." She smiled at the last part. I decided I wouldn't push Ed a different direction. After all, I was always annoyed if my parents didn't like me making music and learning guitar, because they saw it as a distraction from my learning. I looked over and saw Sarah, who had been quiet the whole time, just listening to our conversation. I asked her what she had been doing while I was away for those four years, and I found out that she had learned to play the piano in those four years. We all exchanged stories, some of which I had already heard from Jonny, but there were a couple new things to learn about, like how Ed managed to get decent enough grades to be on the football team, and how he was one of the best defensive men in the whole school district. We talked about our misadventures throughout our four years, and it was one of the few times I've managed to feel truly happy, and I did not regret coming over at this point. Ed was loving that I was back, and he was thoroughly enjoying my visit as much as I was. Eventually, a couple of hours had passed without me realizing it, and I had to leave if I was going to tutor Marie.

"Don't leave Double D!" Ed said as he put me in a bear hug of his, crushing me for probably the fifth time while visiting him.

"Ed...can't...breath…" I was just barely able to get out that last part, but he dropped me and I almost fell down. I heard Marie laughing behind me, and turned around with a slightly annoyed face.

"Oh, you just love to see me get crushed, don't you?" I said before grinning slightly. Marie just kept on laughing, so I looked back at Ed and hugged him back. It was nice to know that we still had brotherly love for each other. After all, that's practically what he is to me, the brother I never had.

"Promise me, Ed, that you won't go spreading the word around. If the whole cul-de-sac finds out, Eddy's going to find out and I just don't want to deal with him right now." I looked up to him, but he had a confused face.

"Um...can you...say that again?" He asked timidly. I sighed slightly, but chuckled as I did so.

"Just don't tell anyone that I'm back, alright?" I told him.

"Not even Eddy?" He asked.

"Especially Eddy. Don't let him know, ok?" He stood at attention and saluted like a soldier would in boot camp. I just laughed at his response.

"Alright, thanks, Ed. And be sure to let me know when we can hang out again, it was fun catching up!" I spoke as I walked out to his porch, but was pulled back into yet another bear hug from Ed, and I was reminded of how May managed to pick me up, and thought that they had that in common, if anything.

"I'm gonna miss you, Double D!" He said, and he seemed like he was crying.

"Ed, it's ok, I'm not going to be going anywhere, I'm just a street or two over." I said to Ed.

"But you never said anything last time you left, Double D." Ed's words struck my heart. As much as I hated leaving him without so much as a warning, it's what I had to do. Still, those words stabbed into my heart, drawing out that regret and making it bleed out. But I managed to keep a normal facade.

"It's ok, Ed. I won't leave this time." I said, barely above a whisper. We parted ways, and Marie and I went to my house to study. Or, actually, so I could tutor Marie. She needed help in calculus, and while it was easy for me to understand, it wasn't so easy to explain it. However, as I got further into helping her, I found ways that I could show her what to do and how to do it. After an hour, we had all of our math done. It was seven by the time this had happened, so Marie decided to go back home so that we could both get some sleep. She left, hugging me again, and I went to finish the rest of my homework, but all the while Ed's words were still in my mind. After all this time and after knowing that he had forgiven me for what I did, I still felt guilt for what I did. After thinking about this heavily for a while, I realized what was wrong. I wasn't forgiving myself. Even if everyone else could forgive me, I couldn't forgive myself. I heard how people felt when I left, and my mind landed on Marie, and what I had heard about her and what she did to herself. I just couldn't forgive myself. As nice as that day had been, meeting Ed again and everything, that night ended up being a sleepless, thought-filled night, filled with me hating myself for what I did to everyone.

 **A.N: So, this took a while, even if it wasn't the longest chapter I've written. School is back in and life just decided to sucker punch me in the face with all sorts of other things. Hopefully the next chapter will come out sooner. On the good side though, we've surpassed 100 followers! Thank you to all the people who have favorited, followed, and reviewed! Stay awesome, and be sure to review to tell me what you think of this chapter. Oh, and the problem with the reviews not loading in was fixed halfway through writing this chapter, so I can reply now. See you in the next chapter!**


	12. Chapter 12

**A.N: Sorry for the slow updates, as I said in the last chapter, life happens. Not only that, I don't have as much time to think out the plot now. I had had the first few chapters clear in my mind when I wrote this, and now in heading into uncharted territory, but hopefully I get to keep up the good quality with the next chapters. Some interesting things have been happening in my life (not bad though), but I'll try my best to keep up good quality. If I don't update for a while don't worry, I'm just busy, but if you're really curious, just message me, and I should reply within a few days. If it seems I've dropped off the face of the earth, then that's a different story. Now onto the main story, and I hope you enjoy it!**

I woke up, feeling groggy and in a bad mood. I had always hated waking up like this, but it was something that seemed to happen. I also didn't think that what I was thinking about the night before helped at all. I knew today was going to be a bad day, one that dragged on and was just a boring day overall. And, I wasn't too far from the truth. I talked with Marie in the morning, but for some reason I didn't see Ed, and I was a little disappointed at that, but I figured that I would see him later. The rest of the day was uneventful, and I had expected as much. Thursday I actually saw Ed in the morning, and he was still as ecstatic as when I visited him on Tuesday. I wondered how he actually managed to be so happy all the time, it almost seemed as if he was still a child. That is what makes Ed Ed though, and I wouldn't change this about him for anything. Throughout the day there seemed to be a lot of talking going on about something: rally. I had had this at my old school too, and it was always something that people looked forward to. In New York our high school had some of the best rallies, but here in Peach Creek, I wasn't so sure. I decided to figure that out when it came time. Lunch was a little more interesting though, as May came up to me and pulled me away from our group. How I became part of the populars, I may never know.

"You told Ed?" May asked me, making sure that our group of friends didn't hear what we were talking about.

"Yeah," I spoke while nodding my head. A smile formed on her face.

"You should have seen the way he acted when he wanted to hang out with me, and Marie told me that you told Ed, so I knew what had happened, so when I asked him about you, he just flipped out and just went crazy, it was hilarious!" She told me, and a grin formed on my own face. I let out a little chuckle before we went back to our group. The rest of the day went by just fine, and it felt like I was finally getting into a rhythm of some sort. I got home, once again feeling the cold embrace of loneliness, but by this point I was used to it. I drowned it out with music, and managed to get it under control. _At least I have friends_ , I thought. I went to bed once the day was done. Just as I thought I was falling into a rhythm, things decided to change. And whether they were for the worse or better, I still haven't truly decided.

. . . .

Thursday came around, and when I got to school I talked with Marie. For some reason, Ed wasn't there, but I figured that he might have been sick. _I hope he didn't pass it on to me,_ I thought. I always hated getting sick, whether it was the idea of foreign germs infesting my body or just the feeling of being sick, it was something I despised. The day went by like normal, except for something that happened, once again, at lunch. Sarah walked up to me, just as I was about to sit down with my lunch and we exchanged a quick conversation, because she had a different lunch than me.

"Hey, do you know what's up with Ed?" Sarah asked me.

"Uh, no. I haven't seen him today, why?" I replied.

"He was cowering under his covers saying that he made a mistake and that he couldn't go today." My mind flashed to if he told anyone else who I was when she said that, but quickly got diverted by other thoughts. Based on things we had done as kids and his reactions to those, it really could be anything at this point.

"I don't think I know, but with him it could be anything." I replied.

"Well mom and dad won't be happy when they find out that he didn't go to school today. I tried, but he just would not budge. Oh well, thanks Double D!" She replied before walking off to her class. As curious as I was to find out why Ed didn't go to school, I had to wait until the end of school. As it turns out though, I didn't have to wait that long. The rest of that day went by normally, and once again, that thought of normality entered my mind, that I was finally on course for the rest of the year. Too bad this year was not going to be that at all. As the final bell rang, I got my backpack and left APUSH with Marie, She went off to math tutoring after talking for a few minutes, and I went to the front gates to walk home. Too bad I had to deal with a problem before I got to the gate. The gates were in sight when I heard a voice that was all too familiar...yet for some reason I couldn't figure out who it was…

"DOUBLE D!" The voice shouted. I stopped, knowing that I told everyone else who knew who I was to keep it a secret, but also that I didn't know who the voice belonged to. I turned around, fearing the worst, and it turns out my fear was right. There about fifteen feet back in the sea of students was Eddy. A scowl formed on my face, and I felt anger welling up inside of me, along with another emotion mixing with it that I couldn't quite place my finger on. He motioned for me to walk over to him with...a smile? _He has the nerve to smile at me when he backstabbed me and pushed me into depression? Let's just see what he wants…_ I thought, walking to him with a face twisted by anger. He stayed off to a side where there wasn't a large amount of people so we could talk without getting pushed around. But I wasn't about ready to talk to him.

"Wow, Double D, I can't believe you're back! I didn't even know where you went, you have to tell me all about it!" He exclaimed, as if he was glad to see me. He grabbed at my arm, but my left arm struck his right shoulder without me even telling it to. He stepped back a quick step. his face filled with shock.

"Don't start acting like we're buddy-buddy Eddy. You know why I left, you immature, greedy bastard." I growled at him. After four years my anger was still kindled against him, and seeing him face to face was like spraying it with gasoline. His face was still shocked, but I saw something behind his eyes, not something with evil intent, but sorrow it seemed. I had no idea what he would be sad about, but I didn't care. I was still angry at him.

"Edd, please meet me at my home sometime." he said, seemingly missing my comment to him just a second ago.

"What, just so you can double cross me again? Are you really that blind? You've proven yourself to be toxic in my life, Eddy, I don't need that." I spat at him. The sorrow grew in his eyes, and I swore I could see tears well up in his eyes.

"Please, I've changed, I swear Double D." He spoke softly, almost to the point where I couldn't hear him over the students trickling out of the front gate.

"No Eddy! You practically pushed me into depression, to the point where I was alone, and you want me to have you do that again!? Do you take me for an idiot, Eddy?! After how many years we were friends, Eddy, since I moved into this town in the first place, we trusted each other! And you decide to ruin it all by throwing me under the bus! Not only that, after I left, you decided to do the same thing with Ed! You think I can just forgive you like that? You're so ignorant, Eddy! You've thrown away so much, and all for what, a quarter?! You deserve where you are now, after what you've done." I was shouting at him as he cowered from me. People started forming around us as I was yelling, expecting a fight to break out, but that was not the case. As I was expecting Eddy to throw a punch, all I saw was his eyes form tears and him run away after I was done yelling. As he ran away, a staff member came up and wondered what all the fuss was about. I started to walk away, not wanting to deal with what would have happened, but it was too late. I was grabbed by the arm by a burly man who was just a little shorter than me. I got to spend the rest of my day in the principle's office, talking about how I was probably going to have to go to conflict mediation with Eddy, but that I wouldn't be suspended because there were no punches thrown. I left an hour after I was supposed to, and now I was scheduled to meet up with Eddy again, this time to "work things out." Already I have gotten into two intense arguments, but I ended up being friends with Marie in the end. I wasn't sure about Eddy, though.

Thursday was worse than what I had expected, and once I had calmed down, I tried to keep my mind off of Eddy so that I wouldn't get angry again. I would have been able to get my mind off of it, but there was a knocking at my door at around six o'clock. I got up from my room and went t0 open the door, but just as I was about to open it, I stopped, and thought if Eddy was behind the door. I made a quick peek through the peephole, and saw that it was Marie. I opened the door and Marie walked in, seemingly out of breath.

"I heard about you and Eddy? What happened?" She asked.

"Yeah, he came up to me and wanted to talk, but I didn't want to deal with him, so I yelled at him that he messed up everything with me, and he went away." I replied.

"Well I guess that gets rid of your problem." Marie said with a slight chuckle.

"Yeah, but I don't get it. He was acting so weird, he said that he changed, and I thought I saw him tear up a little." I said slightly confused.

"Wow, I can't imagine that happening, you actually making Eddy cry." She laughed at the thought. "But trust me, I've heard a lot about Eddy, and I don't think he's changed all that much." Marie stated.

"Yeah, I don't think so either, but it's just so weird, I didn't think I would see that happen, it's just...baffling." I replied. "And now I have to go to conflict mediation with him either tomorrow or Monday. I'm probably going to hate it, and I really don't feel like forgiving him." As much as I would love to be friends with him again, I just don't think it would have been a good choice for me. We talked for a few more minutes about Eddy and the whole situation that went on with him and I. Then Marie said that she had to go, but she surprised me by hugging me, from seemingly out of nowhere.

"Just be careful, and don't be stupid, alright?" She asked me when she hugged me. I nodded.

"Yeah." She left, and I felt a feeling that I once again couldn't name. One that was slightly familiar in taste, but so much different to the point I couldn't tell. No matter what it was, I was really enjoying the time I was able to spend with Marie, as she became much less of a menace since I was last here. She seemed to have more interests now than just chasing me and the Ed's when we were younger. She was all-in-all a fun person to be with, and it turns out it was pretty good to move here, but I would have still liked to be back in New York. _I could always go over and visit them at some point,_ I thought. I went to bed, dreading going to conflict mediation with Eddy tomorrow.

 **A.N: Sorry if this chapter was short, I just wanted to get back into the swing of writing before I write some of the next chapters. As I said, feel free to message me with anything, whether you want to see if I'm not dead, just to talk, or anything else really. Thank you for reading, and if you want to leave a review, I love reading those too! Have a good day!**


	13. Chapter 13

**A.N: So, I might be wrapping things up soon, I'll have to see what I can do, but there should still be many more chapters to come and maybe a sequel if you guys want one. In other news, Gravity Falls has ended, so once this story is done, I'll be posting that story. Anyways, this is the new chapter, and hopefully I'll be writing more soon!**

I awoke with a feeling of dread, and after a few seconds of lying on my bed with my eyes slightly open, I realized what it was after a minute of sitting there. As much as I would have loved this Friday to be one where I wouldn't have to think too hard on things as the weekend was here, I had to worry about conflict mediation with Eddy. I despised the idea of having to talk to him about how he betrayed me, and of our whole past. Normally I'm a forgiving person, and I probably should have forgiven Eddy, but I didn't feel like forgiving. Something inside me wouldn't let me feel like he deserved an apology. I don't know what it was, but it wouldn't let me.

I got ready for the day and headed off to school. When I got there, Marie greeted me and we talked for a while, but we danced our way around the topic of conflict mediation. Eventually, she spoke up a couple minutes before we were supposed to head off to class.

"So, they're gonna call you to talk with Eddy sometime during class, I don't know when though. I think it's either second, fourth, or fifth period." She told me when our conversation got quiet.

"How many times have you gone there?" I asked with a laugh.

"About five times. The other times I just got suspended for fighting them," she answered with a small chuckle. I chuckled with her, knowing that that would be the case. "Are you nervous about it?" She asked, sounding a little nervous, but managing to not sound too worried.

"To be honest, I kind of am. I don't know what'll happen, or if I should forgive him. Do you think I should forgive him?" I asked Marie. My inner conflict from this morning had carried itself all the way to school with me, and I wanted someone else's opinion.

"I mean, it's all up to you, but I think you should forgive him. It's your call, I don't know how bad he hurt you, but I can tell you, it'll probably be better if you forgive him." She replied. I wasn't sure if I actually would forgive him, even if it would have been the best choice.

"Thanks Marie." I said just as the bell rang. Marie hugged me just like yesterday and said, "Please don't do anything stupid, just do what you feel is best." She said before releasing me. I stood there for a second, and hugged her back. "Don't worry, I'll be fine." I told Marie. We parted and walked our separate ways. I thought for a moment that it was weird, me hugging Marie. If my past self had known this was something I willingly did, I would have flipped out. But I couldn't think on that for long, I had to worry about school, amongst other things…

First period was normal, except for the fact that everything was faded, and my mind was in a whole other world. To be more specific, one without Eddy. I thought back to Marie's words about how I should take her word and forgive him. That's when I had a really clear thought. _Everyone else forgave me after I left them without a goodbye, even Marie._ It was then that I decided to forgive Eddy, but I wanted to hear what he had to say first.

It was second period when over the intercom I heard the call for me to go to a room. I was surprised that it wasn't the principal's office, but an actual classroom. Nevertheless, I walked off to the conflict mediation room, with a different mindset from yesterday. I got to the classroom, and found that Eddy was already there. He looked like a puppy that had just been scolded, sitting in his seat dejectedly. He glanced up at me, but immediately shot his eyes down to the floor once we made eye contact. I sat down on the chair across from him, and the other people around us, who I assumed were students, looked at us.

"So, we're here to help you guys resolve whatever is going on between you two." The guy on my right started. "If you're having trouble resolving things, we can help you guys fix it." He said.

"Nah, I just think we should talk it out." I said. Then I turned to Eddy. "I'm sorry about yesterday, I should have heard you out, I was just mad."

"No, I get it." Eddy spoke with a slightly hoarse voice. "Listen, I'm sorry too, about everything." Eddy raised his face up. "I shouldn't have blamed you like that, I was too much of a greedy ass to see that I was fucking up so much." Eddy said as he lowered his face again to hide the tears that were coming out of his eyes. "I'm such a fucking idiot." He said quietly.

"Eddy, I mean yeah you did something wrong, but it's fine, I forgive you." I tried to console him, but his face came back up, small streams of tears trailing down his cheek.

"No, you don't understand. When I heard you came back, so many memories came back and I knew for sure what happened to you. When you left, I thought you just went on a vacation with your family, so I had to blame things on Ed, and then it all backfired. It wasn't until a week after that that I started to worry about you along with everyone else. Then…" Eddy started to really tear up at this point, and his voice became extremely choked. "Then this rumor went around that you...that...you died...and…" He was sobbing at this point, "and I thought that it was my fault...I...thought that I did this to one of my best friends, that he...he...k...died…" It was a few minutes before he could compose himself enough to talk again. "I saw what everyone else was going through, and once we knew you weren't coming back… I felt so guilty and I...I just felt that if I didn't do that everything would have been so much better, and I just...I thought that...it was all my fault." He ended while looking down at the floor. I was gonna say something, but then he spoke up again. "I tried to get my mind off of it all, so I went back to scamming people. Then I heard you came back, and everything just...just came back. I felt like I had to see you. I couldn't go without telling you sorry. I just...I had to." The tears were still streaming down his face when he ended. I had never expected to see Eddy cry like this, especially over the mistake that he made. There was a silence for a minute, but I broke it.

"I forgive you. I know that you made a stupid mistake, and I left everyone in the dark when I left, and they forgave me. So why wouldn't I forgive you?"

"Yeah, but if I hadn't blamed you you wouldn't have left like that. I made the first mistake, it's all my fault." Eddy told me.

"You can't blame yourself for everything, alright? I forgive you, but if you make a mistake like that again, that'll be the last mistake you make with me, alright?" I asked. Eddy sniffled and nodded, looking down at the ground. We stayed in silence for another minute, the conflict mediation people keeping quiet too. I could tell some of them were shocked and confused at what just happened, and the whole conversation that had just transpired. For them, this conversation was as confusing as walking in on a movie right at the end. I stood up and looked down at Eddy, waiting for him to look up at me. After a few seconds, he raised his head, and looked at me. I held my hand out at him, waiting for him to grasp it, and, once he did, I pulled him up, and into an embrace. He seemed shocked by it, but eventually accepted it and hugged me back.

"Remember that if you do that again, you're really gonna be paying for it." I spoke, He sniffled and I felt him nod. I let go, and looked him in the eye. "We're like brothers, Eddy. Even after all this time and everything that's happened, we're still gonna be brothers to each other. Now I should probably get back to class." I said. It was going to take some getting used to, and some repair to have Eddy back around. I still felt wary about him, and I wasn't sure if he would betray me again. I went back to class, and I replayed everything Eddy had said. I felt bad for him, but those choices that he made were ultimately his. I hoped that things were going to get back to normal soon. The rest of the day I felt sick, I couldn't focus on anything, and I knew it was going to stay the entire day. I sat alone at lunch, in the place I spent my time at lunch at the start of this quarter. Blasting my music, I was left to the solitude where I could think about what had happened and what I should do now. I decided that I should try my best to become friends with Eddy again, it would be what was best. The rest of school went by normally as I had expected, and I walked home, but that feeling wouldn't go away. It felt like someone had poured a dark sap over my mind, I wasn't able to see the outside or focus, and everything was dark. My thoughts were slowed. It was a strange feeling, and the best way I can describe it is when you wake up in a bad mood with your head clogged up.

When I got home I decided to sit down and take a small nap. Unfortunately for me, someone knocked on my door, just as I was about to fall asleep. I awoke, unsure if I had heard an actual knock or if it was my mind pulling me out of my slumber. I decided to check, considering I was already awake. When I got to the door and opened it up, I saw Marie standing there, looking a little worried.

"Hey," she said with a nervous smile. Me, still being the groggy person I was, motioned her to come in without a spoken word. We walked into the living room and sat down on the couch, on opposite ends. I waited for her to say something, but we had to sit through some silence. "So...how did it go?" Marie asked me.

"I don't know." I replied after a short silence. Marie gave me a confused look. "I mean, I forgave him, but, why don't I feel right?" I asked, more towards me than her. She looked down, still a little confused, but she tried to make more sense out of it.

"Well that's good you forgave him, but I still don't know why you feel bad. Maybe it's just you trying to get over the past. After all the shit you went through, it makes sense." What she said made sense, and I felt like that was probably what was going on. I wasn't sure, but I hoped that it would be something I could get over quickly.

"Thanks Marie." I said, my mind still cloudy.

"No problem." She stated simply. A few minutes of silence hung in the air, and I felt a slight tension in the air. I looked over at Marie, and she was looking at me. We stared at each other for a few moments, until I smirked.

"What?" I asked her, momentarily forgetting everything with Eddy.

"What? I can't look at you without you judging what I'm doing?" She asked, a similar smirk forming on her face. A smile formed on my face at this point.

"I'm not judging you, I'm just wondering what you're thinking about doing to me." I said. Her smirk disappeared and she turned her face, but not before I saw a small tinge of red appear on her face. "Oh, god, what were you thinking of over there?" I laughed, and I could see her laughing too. I laughed honestly for the first time that day, and it felt like that veil had been taken away from my mind. While Marie was still faced the other way, I slid over to her, nudged her knee with my foot, and slid back to where I was laying down. I saw Marie, still laughing, but she looked back at me, slowly, with a grin on her face. _Oh shit,_ I thought jokingly, and there was a moment of staring the other down, before I tried to get up and run around the house before Marie could get me back. I knew it was childish, but it was something fun and it took my mind off of the confusion of the day. As I turned the corner into the hallway of my house, I knew that I made a big mistake. I had already trapped myself. I ran, trying to find someplace to outsmart her, as she was right behind me. I took too long trying to decide where to go, and as I slowed down, Marie tagged me with her foot. When she did that, she tripped me, and took herself out in the process. As I landed on my side, she fell and landed right behind me, almost on top of me. We both were laughing to the point we couldn't talk, but eventually it died down and I turned onto my back, lying on Marie's arm. Both still laughing, we turned our faces toward each other, inches apart. I looked into her blue sapphire eyes, or, at least the one not covered in short, messy blue hair. I felt my heart, and felt that it was beating fast, and not all just because I was running from Marie. She grinned at me, still chuckling, but I realized that both of our laughs were slowly dying out. I got lost looking at her face, and we lied next to each other for some time, not talking, but just looking at each other. I could feel Marie's breaths, and the more I looked at her, the more I thought she looked...cute? _Wait hold up!_ I thought as I sat up, confused as to what just happened. She sat up a second after I sat up, and she looked at me as I looked at the ground.

"What?" She asked me in a worried tone. "Did I do something?"

"No, I'm just...I…" I trailed off, tilting my head to the side like a curious dog, not knowing what to say. Marie looked confused, but still sat by me with her knees drawn to her chest.

"Should I leave you?" She asked quietly and somewhat sadly.

"No, no, I'm just confused by what I felt. That was weird, but...I liked it…" I trailed off once again. Something that felt like a small smile formed on my face.

"What did you feel?" Marie asked, a little happier.

"I don't know, I can't tell." I said, still confused. Marie feigned a gasp.

"What?! The all-knowing Edd doesn't know what is going on?" She said with a chuckle.

"Shut up," I said jokingly as I elbowed her. I got up and helped Marie back up, and we both walked back to the living room. We sat back down on the couch, but we sat closer this time, as I sat next to the arm of the couch and Marie sat right next to me. We talked about random things, asking each other questions about the other, and just enjoying each other's company. Marie started to lean on me during our conversation, and I just let her. After an hour of talking, Marie decided to leave, and she gave me a hug before she left. The rest of the day I was no longer followed by that black cloud of worry and doubt, and I was actually happy. It wasn't until I got into bed that I thought over everything that happened that day clearly. My first thought was Eddy, and his whole story. On one hand, I'm glad that I forgave him, it means that we could start again. Hearing what he went through really made me feel sorry for him, even if he was the one who caused it all. After all, he was a brother to me, so how could I just not forgive him? On the other hand, though, I didn't want him to betray me. I didn't want to go through that whole situation again, it would be like welcoming a robber into your house for the second time. I decided that I would take things as they come, but I hoped for the best.

Then my mind drifted to Marie, and what happened just a few hours ago. I thought about how she seemed worried about me, and how she managed to take away that cloud that followed me around that entire day. I also thought how it was her that made me laugh for the first time that day. That feeling came back to me when I replayed that whole scene of Marie and I in the hallway. I envisioned her face, her eyes. I thought how she made me feel so much better after the shit day that I had, and how we managed to keep a good conversation going for hours. I remembered her laugh, and how I thought she looked cute. Then it hit me, like a revelation that there was a god. _...fuck…_ I thought, as I realized just what kind of predicament I was in.

 **A.N: So, now the plot thickens! Hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and I should post more regularly, as spring break is now here. Be sure to review what you thought of this chapter, and if you haven't already, follow and favorite this story! As always, if I happened to leave behind any mistakes like spelling, grammar, or story-line issues, notify me PLEASE! I want to make this story the best it can be. Have a lovely day, and I'll see you in the next chapter!**


	14. Chapter 14

**A.N: I'm back, now with more chapters! As you can see, the pieces are falling into place, but will they be jumbled up again? Hopefully I can get an good ending on this, as I said, this is my first fanfiction, so hopefully I can end this one off really well. Anyways, if you want to review, go ahead, I read them all! I may not reply all the time, but on occasion I will reply back. Anyways, onto the next chapter!**

I woke up in a strangely good mood, one that I hadn't felt in a long time. It was a good feeling, but it was strange, considering all of the things that happened yesterday. Then I thought about what I realized about Marie, and felt a small blush form on my face. I knew what it was I was feeling now, but I couldn't say it in my mind. As much as I should have been happy that I was feeling good and that this could turn into a good thing, it just wasn't the right time for me to figure out. If it was actually a calm time, I would be elated, but alas, I had a full plate, and now that I had lo-...that on my hands I couldn't put it anywhere. I had to deal with everything else first, like getting back together with Eddy and finding out if I can actually trust him, finally letting all of the other cul-de-sac kids know, and find where Ed went to. _As a matter of fact, where has Ed been?_ I asked myself mentally. I hadn't seen him since the day Eddy talked to me, and I'm surprised that I didn't notice until now. I'd have to go talk to him when I could, and tell him that it's fine he told Eddy. I could just imagine him cowering under his bed covers, feeling guilty, and a small chuckle escaped my lips. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and got dressed. My parents had come by during the night and I talked with them for a while and enjoyed their company, but it was not to last for long as they had to go off to work yet again. Having the whole house to myself for the millionth time in my life, I worked on my morning routine.

Once I was done with my shower and getting my mess of hair straightened out some, I went to eat breakfast. It was about 9 in the morning, and I always tended to wake up earlier than most of my friends, but it was always nice to have most of the day to yourself instead of lost sleeping in a bed. For the next few hours I watched tv, got my homework done, listened to music, and other things to pass the time. I knew that if I was going to be talking to Ed, Eddy and Marie, I would have to wait until they're all awake. I waited until around one to go out and see how Ed was holding up. I was always glad to see Ed, and I assumed that I would have to get him back up on his feet and not feel so guilty. I was up for a challenge, though, and of course I would be able to be with that lovable oaf for some time, then I'd probably go back home. I walked over to Ed's house and looked through the window that led to Ed's room. I couldn't see anything at first because of how dark it was, so I knocked on the window and opened it a crack.

"Ed?" I asked through the window and I heard shuffling and a crash. No other response. I decided to climb through the window anyways. "Ed? Are you here?" I asked, getting an immediate response.

"No one is at home, please leave a message at the...uh...moo?" I heard the lump in the bed say. I chuckled to myself, it had been awhile since I've heard Ed say something that strange.

"Ed, I know you're here." I said, holding back a laugh.

"I said no one is home, moo." I laughed when he said that, and finally had to get him out from under the covers.

"Ed, seriously, it's ok, I talked with Eddy earlier, we made up...somewhat." I saw Ed's head poke out from amongst the sheets.

"Really Double D?" He asked me with puppy-dog eyes. I smiled.

"Yup, I'll probably go talk to him soon, see what he's been up to." I replied. Ed jumped out from his bed and tackled me to the ground.

"YAY! THE THREE AMIGOS ARE ONCE MORE!" Ed shouted at the top of his lungs, hugging me.

"Yeah, it should be good…" I said, unsure about what would actually come of this. Ed, though, didn't hear the concern in my voice.

"We should go over to him right now!" Ed said, picking me up and running to his window.

"Wait wait wait, Ed," I tried to get him to stop. He stopped right as we were at the window and looked at me in confusion.

"What is it, Double D?" I looked back at him, unsure of how to explain my concerns to him. Then a thought came to me.

"Ed, can we talk first? I have a question to ask you." He set me down on his bed and sat next to me, and while his cleaning habits may have improved, they still needed quite a bit of work. Ed looked at me, eager to listen to whatever I had to tell him.

"Ed, how did you react when Eddy...blamed you for the scams?" This was a question that never occurred to me, as I had been too caught up in my woes. Ed seemed to think it over for a minute, before coming up with a response.

"I just forgave him." I gave Ed a confused stare, but he didn't seem to know what that meant, so I asked him to elaborate. "Well, Eddy is like a brother, I will always forgive him, even if it's something really bad. My parents don't want me to be with him anymore because of all the things he's done, but I'm still friends with him, that's not gonna change." I sat, staring at my feet, trying to understand how Ed can be so forgiving toward Eddy.

"But, how can you forgive him so easily? How can I forgive him so easily?" I asked, not expecting Ed to answer.

"We were like brothers, Double D. He made a mistake, and he wants you to forgive him. You just have to give him a chance." He replied, patting me on my back. I was surprised by his answer, and how quickly he went from confusing the words "moo" and "beep," to giving me this kind of advice.

"But what if he tries to do the same thing again?" I asked, still unsure about this decision to trust Eddy.

"That's up to you, Double D." Ed replied. It was true, the decision was mine, and I knew that if he tried to do something like that again, he would regret it. I made that clear to him in conflict mediation.

"Alright, thanks Ed." I said, standing up. I took a breath, mentally getting myself ready for talking with Eddy. "You want to go over?" I asked Ed. His eyes lit up, and he shot up, picked me up, and was already trying to go through the window with both of us, getting us stuck in the process.

"Going to Eddy's! Going to Eddy's!" He shouted, still not realizing we were stuck.

"Ed, calm down, please, we happen to be stuck." I said, trying to release myself from his grip. Once I got out, he shot out and tumbled across the yard. We both went over to Eddy's house and Ed knocked on the slider to Eddy's room.

"EDDY! Me and Double D are here to see you!" He shouted. I felt nervous, anxious about how Eddy and I would be around each other. Most likely, it'll be awkward for a while, and some things might not fix, but I don't expect them to. A few moments later, Eddy shows up at the door, a little annoyed.

"Ed, you don't have to shout." He says to Ed, and then sees me, and looks away quickly. "Come in," he says as he motions for us to walk into his room. Ed runs in at full force, and I walk in after him. Ed jumps onto Eddys bed, and I stand in the middle of the room, unsure where to sit. Eddy closes the door, and sees Ed jumping on his bed.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't jump on my bed, Lumpy. You're gonna have to buy a new one if you break it." Eddy sounded as if he had just woken up, his voice scratchy, but he was completely dressed, so that wasn't the case. I saw a chair, so I decided that I might as well sit down in it. Eddy sat down in a chair in the corner, and there was a small silence before Ed decided to break it.

"Eddy, did you hear the news?! We are the three amigos once more!" Eddy gave Ed a strange look, and Eddy gave a small smile.

"Yes, Double D talked to me yesterday, I'm pretty sure I heard the news." Eddy said with a small chuckle. It was weird to be in this situation again, one that I haven't been in in about four years. Not only that, a few days ago I wanted to kill Eddy. It was best for me to give him a second chance, I knew that much, but hopefully it would turn out well. There was an awkward silence that hung in the room for a few moments, until Eddy spoke to me.

"Listen, Double D, I'm really sorry about everything that I did in the past. I shouldn't have blamed you for that, and it was all my fault, I just-" I cut him off with my hand outstretched in a stop motion.

"It's fine, Eddy, really. We both acted immaturely, and we can both make up. I'm not gonna get roped into helping you do these things. We're not gonna get back to normal in a day, it's gonna take some time. Don't worry, we can get through this." I told him, and I could see a small bit of hope in a face of doubt and guilt. "Besides, we have Ed here to help us." I said, gesturing to Ed, who gave a wide smile. I smiled back, and the tension in the room dissipated. We moved on to talk about some topics, dancing around talking about anything too close to what we should have talked about. Whether it was from the weather, how Sarah was annoying Ed, but after a while I became bored of the conversation and became curious for an answer to a question.

"So Eddy, I heard that Lee still bothers you, how's that been going?" I asked, failing to keep a straight face as I saw his twist into disgust.

"Ugh, her? She's so annoying now, she won't stop bothering me. It's even worse than when we were in middle school, I swear." Eddy's comment made me burst out laughing, and some of the memories came back to me. "No, seriously! I think she just likes to bully me now, She doesn't try to kiss me or anything, just annoy me. At least you guys are lucky with your Kankers. May is pretty hot, Marie is cute, but Lee is...ok...like I still don't like her, and she doesn't like me either, but she still won't stop annoying me. I wish I had better luck…" he said as he slid down in his seat. I was still laughing, and so was Ed at this point, but I had to agree with him on what I knew. May was a good fit for Ed, Marie...well...I can talk about that later, and yet I still have yet to see Lee. I wasn't about to judge on looks from someone else's opinion, but I had nothing else to go off of right now.

"So it doesn't sound like things have gone well for you and Lee have they?" I said, just trying to rub in Eddy's predicament.

"Well has Marie found out about you yet?" Eddy asked, with a devilish grin on his face. I knew what he was thinking, that she didn't know yet and that he would tell her, but unfortunately for him, she did know.

"Yeah, we've actually been hanging out a lot lately." I said, with a grin on my face. I watched as his smile dropped, and his eyebrows lifted up in surprise.

"Wow, well good for you, I guess. Have you been doing anything with her, huh?" He asked, waving his eyebrows. I had to turn away and laugh, but a small blush formed on my face, even though we still had never actually "done" anything.

"No, God, I have other things to take care of, but…" I trailed off, and I could see Eddy start to smile again.

"But what, Double D? You have something on your mind for later?" Eddy asked, leaning closer to me and jabbing me lightly with his elbow. I started laughing again, and we spent the whole next hour laughing at each other, making fun of each other, and then talking about my past. We never really talked about what Eddy had been doing for these past four years, and he seemed reluctant to talk about it. Either way, I was happy just to get back with our old group of friends. For a moment there, it felt like it was back in middle school where we acted like nothing could go wrong for us, and I loved it. I hoped that we really could become like that again. It almost felt too easy to get back into that rhythm, but I was not about to complain. I got back to my house at around three, and I knew that I would have the house to myself...or so I thought…

I walked into my house, and made my way toward my room, but I heard something moving around in my room. I froze, and feared that someone was robbing our house. I left the back door unlocked, and some of the windows were left unlocked too, could someone have seen I left and took advantage of this? I heard feet shuffling in my room once more, and heard someone lay on top of my bed. I decided to walk a little farther away from my door, just to be safe, before calling out "Hello?"

"Double D?" The familiar voice asked.

"Marie?" I asked, walking up to my door and opening it. She was laying down on my bed, reading one of the many books I had scattered about in my room.

"Sup?" She asked casually.

"Marie, may I ask you how and why you're in my room?"

"I was gonna talk to you, but you weren't home, so I let myself in." She said, gesturing toward the window to my room.

"Remind me next time to lock the windows when I leave next time." I said, half teasingly and half seriously. She smiled, and went back to looking at the book in her hand.

"Oh, I will, but I would have already been inside at that time."

"You still never answered me why you just decided to break in." I told Marie.

"No, I did, I just wanted to talk and hang out for a while." She replied, flipping through the pages and not even reading the book.

"Alright, well I'm here now, so what do you want to talk about?" I ask. Marie sits up on my bed and looks at me with a grin. She looks down at the seat next to her and makes it obvious she wants me to sit next to her. Once again, that feeling came over me again like a cascade of water, and I felt embarrassed that I would do something wrong and humiliate myself, but then again, what did I have to worry about? Marie had already humiliated me in the past, so what made this time any different? _I think I know why…_ I thought to myself as I sat next to Marie. We both looked at each other's eyes for a few seconds, and then I realized that we have yet to say something to each other,

"So, you still haven't said anything Marie." I said, confused as to why there was a silence in the room.

"You know, you can see someone's feelings behind their eyes for the first few seconds you look at them, and then it flickers away…" She said as her eyes narrowed and small grin tugged at her face. _God, she looks so cute right now,_ I thought as I felt a blush come on, and I looked down for the quickest of moments to regain myself.

"Is that so, Marie?" I asked, looking back up at her. She still had her eyes narrowed, and then she tilted her head back, still locking her eyes on mine.

"Do you know what that feeling was when we were messing around yesterday?" She asked, a slightly devilish smirk, as subtle as it was, crept onto her face. My eyes widened out, just a little, surprised by what she had asked. _Did she…? No, no there's no way she figured it out that fast,_ I thought in my head. Normally I could keep a clean facade, but could I not with Marie? I played it off, just to see if she was just joking around.

"No, I still can't place a name to it…" I said as I looked up, as if I was trying to find a word. She didn't respond, so I looked her back in her eyes, and that look was still on her face. Her face moved closer, and her grin grew wider.

"Are you sure?" She asked yet again. I could feel her breath on my lips, and it took me back. I didn't expect this to happen. "Because that's not what I saw in your eyes." I let out a nervous chuckle.

"And what did you see?" I asked, trying to outwit her. Unfortunately in my situation, she had the upper-hand.

"Oh, you _**know**_ what I saw…" She said. She was just trying to get me to say it at this point. I crumbled.

"Yeah, I know...How did you get it that fast though?" I asked, She smiled, and leaned close to my left ear.

"I have my ways," Marie whispered, with the smallest hint of seduction in her voice. She leaned back so that we were sitting normally again.

"I have to say, I'm impressed." I said, looking down at the ground, blushing. Marie wrapped her arms around my side, and I blushed even harder.

"What can I say, 'oven mitt,' I have my ways." That was a nickname I hadn't heard in a long time. But Marie surprised me, once more, by grabbing my head by the sides and turning it to face hers. She butted our foreheads together in the slightest, and as I looked into her grayish-blue eyes, I heard her whisper. "But I won't make it easy for you…" She said. I got lost in her eyes, but she pulled away and sat back, looking at me with a devilish grin. I smiled back.

"Is that so?" I asked, smiling even wider now.

"Yep." She said and nodded her head. It was my turn to surprise her as I hugged her and got close to her ear.

"I don't mind a challenge." I whispered in her ear. She playfully shoved away my arms away and laughed.

"Get off of me, Edd," She said laughing and laid back down on my bed. I still sat on my bed, and we both talked for the next hour, teasing each other and other such subjects. Eventually, she had to leave, and as she walked out the door she told me yet again, "I'm still not gonna make this easy for you!"

"Have you ever made it easy for me?" I asked her as she walked down the walkway. She laughed and left without another word. I closed the door and leaned my back up on the door, surprised by how the day had gone. _I'm starting to really like Saturdays,_ I thought as I chuckled to myself. Ecstatic about how the day had gone, with getting a little closer to Eddy and having that whole...interaction with Marie, it was one of, if not the best, days I had had since I moved back to Peach Creek. I went to my room, and went about doing my normal activities, ate dinner, and eventually went to bed. No matter what happened in the future, this was a day I would remember.

 **A.N: So things sound like they're wrapping up by now, and in a way they are, but I'm still planning more things to come! Hopefully you all enjoyed this installment, and be sure to leave a review if you did! I'm starting to get into the writing process yet again, so hopefully the next chapters will be really good! If I made a mistake on grammar, spelling, or punctuation, do not hesitate to point it out and I'll get right on it. I'll see you all in the next chapter, and hope you all have a lovely day!**


	15. Chapter 15

**A.N: I'm back once again, and with how things are wrapping up, I think I should get three or four more chapters out of this. But first, it appears some of you are fooled into thinking that things are going to go smoothly from here on out. Well, the answer to that is simple: no, no they won't. You'll see about that later on, but we have another chapter to go through! I'll decide what happens in this chapter as I go along, so I can't actually tell you what to expect, so...oh well. Also, my schedule has cleared up finally, which I am very glad about. Onto the next chapter!**

I never did get to see Marie on Sunday, but I was still ecstatic about Saturday that I didn't mind too much. In fact, I didn't even think about what would happen on Monday. I had completely forgotten that Kevin, Nazz, and Jimmy still didn't know that I returned, so getting a visit from a couple of them was interesting. I was sitting against the wall listening to music, waiting for Marie to walk over when Nazz decided to visit me, wearing a very confused look. Her eyes were squinted to look at me, and her head was tilted. I noticed her, gave her an equally confused look, and paused my music.

"Edd? Is that really you?" She asked, approaching me as if she was getting closer to a scared dog. I smiled slightly and let out a laugh.

"Yup, I'm back, sorry about not-" I tried to reply, but as soon as the word "yup" left my mouth, her eyes opened as wide as they could, and before I could finish what I was saying, she leapt at me and hugged me.

"Holy shit! I didn't- we thought- I don't even know what to say!" She almost yelled. I hugged her back, and after hugging for a few seconds, Nazz let me go. "I can't believe you're back! How couldn't I see that you were you?! I can't believe it!" She seemed to get more excited as she kept talking, and it was pretty amusing how much she was freaking out. She reminded me of those girls you would see who would run up to her friends after not seeing them for a week and scream as they went to hug their friend. In fact, I think she is one of those people.

"I can't believe you didn't realize who I was when you first saw me, but I guess I changed a lot while I was away." I said shrugging my shoulders. I remembered when she first came up to me and talked with me, I was as terrified as I could have been at that time.

"Yeah, you changed a ton! I really can't believe I didn't recognize you, that is insane!" Nazz practically had an aura of energy that seemed to be growing the more she was talking with me, and I could tell that she was happy that I was back. As we were talking I noticed that Marie had walked up to us, and she hooked onto my arm.

"Hey babe. Oh, hey Nazz." Marie spat the second part toward Nazz, and I could tell Marie had a problem with Nazz being here. I saw Nazz's face descend into disgust at Marie, and that energetic aura jarringly changed to cold and distant hatred.

"Hey Marie. Well listen, Edd. I'm gonna go back to the cheerleaders, but we should talk later, ok?" She asked and smiled a little when she asked me. I nodded and said that I would. "Alright, nice! Well it was nice meeting up with you!" She said as she gave me a hug and then walked away. I turned back to Marie, and I could see a scowl on her face as she watched Nazz walk away.

"That was interesting." I said, a little confused as to why Marie had this scowl glued to her face.

"Yeah. Interesting…" She said as if trying to figure out a mystery.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I feel like she's planning something. I've never really liked her, but I think she's thinking to do something…" She said, now glaring at where Nazz turned the corner.

"Hey, it's ok, I won't let her get away with anything if she tries to do something with me." I tried to reassure her. "Also, are we already giving each other pet names?" I asked her, trying to get her mind off of Nazz. Marie's face turned into a small smile as she gave an eyeroll.

"Well, I saw Nazz talking with you, so I just wanted to make her sure that you were already taken." She responded. "I mean, I know I could have done it other ways, but…" She trailed off as she hugged me and leaned her head into my chest.

"So this is you making things difficult, huh." I said in a mocking tone.

"Hey, my moods change a lot, you're just gonna have to deal with it, alright?" She said, looking up at me with a smile. I just rested my head on her's and we talked until we had to go to our classes. The day had already started out stranger than normal, but it was bound to get stranger as the day went on. The first two periods were normal, but third period was where things got even more interesting. I was sitting in my seat getting my supplies ready when I heard Kevin from behind me.

"Double D?" I heard his confused voice say. I turned around with a raised eyebrow, and saw Kevin standing there, bewildered.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Is that really you?" Kevin asked. I looked at myself, as if seeing if I was really there.

"Yeah, I think so." I replied with a smirk on my face as I saw Kevin's eyes grow.

"No fucking way! That's crazy! When did you come back!?" He asked. I told him a little bit of the story of when and why I was back, and slightly into why I left in the first place. Unfortunately, I couldn't elaborate too much, as the class was about to start, so I said that I would explain it later. Kevin still seemed shocked at the very least as he returned to his seat. The actual class was boring to say the least as we learned about stuff I had already learned about prior to that day. Afterwards, though, Kevin came up to me and made a little proposition.

"So what would you think if I planned a little party for you coming back?" Kevin asked me with a smile. "That way you could tell some of us what you were doing in New York for all of these years." He ended off.

"Well actually, Kevin, I've pretty much told everyone else, but a party could be fun after everything that's happened." I replied. I was needing to let loose a little bit, it had been a rough month or so. A party might not have been the best idea, seeing as how I wasn't a social butterfly, but I would try it out anyways.

"Alright! Sounds good, I'll try to plan it out soon!" Kevin said as he rushed out to his next period. I made my way out to calculus and saw Marie waiting outside with a sly grin on her face. _Oh great. I hope she hasn't planned anything,_ I thought to myself as I walked up.

"Hey sweetie," She said in the tone she used when we were kids.

"Hmm, not gonna let up, even if I'm not running from you."

"Nope!" She said with a chuckle. I was just about to walk into class, but she grabbed me and hugged me. "But even if you want to run, you can't now." She said with a smile. I smiled back at her and returned the hug.

"Oh lord, have I made a mistake?" I jokingly asked.

"Oh yeah, big time." She replied as she let go of me and we both walked into class. The rest of the day was pretty lackluster, although I would notice Marie sneaking glances and smirking at me every so often in both calculus and history, but how could I blame her? After all, she did kind of get together with someone she had been in love with for a while. Albeit she also terrorized me and my friends, but if there's anything I've learned since I've returned, it's that people can change. After the last period had ended, Marie and I had decided to walk home together, as we were leaving though, we ran into Nazz again, and I could see Marie's face turn into disgust yet again. I don't know what was wrong between them, but I felt like I would find out eventually. Nazz saw us, and I saw her expression change too when she saw Marie. It quickly lightened up when she saw me though, and I felt awkward being in the middle of all of this. Marie grabbed my hand and tried pulling me in a different direction from Nazz, but it was too late.

"Hey, Double D!" Nazz said to get my attention, and she walked over to get to me. Marie tried to go faster, but to no avail. "So, when did you want to meet up?" She asked, and I saw her eyes glance down at Marie grabbing my hand, and I saw her expression change just for a second, so fast that I couldn't tell what it was. I looked over and saw Marie looking away from Nazz, with a disgusted glare stuck to her face. I looked back over to Nazz, a little worried for what could happen.

"Um, you know, I really don't know…" I trailed off, trying to diffuse the situation that was going on. I could practically feel the hate radiating off of these two, and being in the middle of it was even less fun.

"Here, how about I give you my phone number?" Nazz asked me as she pulled out her phone. I grabbed my phone and we exchanged numbers. As this was going on, I could feel Marie's grip on my hand become stronger and stronger. It was a relief when we and Nazz parted.

"You ok, Marie?" I asked. Her face was still unhappy as we walked along.

"No. I really feel like she's planning something." Marie replied, and just as I was about to say there was nothing to worry about, another voice called out from behind us.

"Edd!" I heard Jonny shout, and I turned around to see him running toward us with a worried look on his face.

"Oh hey Jonny. What's up?" I asked.

"I-oh, well, I want to talk with you later today if that's ok." He tripped up a bit when he saw Marie holding my hand, but he caught himself quickly.

"Uh, sure. Do I have your phone number? Just call me when you want to talk." I said. Once again I exchanged phone numbers, but this time before leaving, Jonny whispered something to me.

"Talk to me before you talk with Nazz." He made sure that Marie couldn't hear what he was saying, and I caught on to that.

"Alright." I said before we parted. Marie was now more confused than angry, which I thought was a step a better direction.

"What was that about?" She asked me.

"Eh, he just wanted to talk later, that's all. Did I tell you he was the first one who found me out?" I asked, trying to get attention off of what he whispered to me.

"Yeah, I believe you did." She replied. It appeared my trick had worked, as she didn't mention it again as we walked home. Instead, we talked about all sorts of randomness as we walked home, ranging from cartoons to music. Once again, we got into how Marie could sing, and how I hadn't heard her yet.

"Come on, I still haven't heard you, just give me something I can work with!" I pleaded to her in a half-joking, half-serious manner. Marie was smiling, but also embarrassed by what I was asking.

"No, you know that I don't like singing in front of people." She replied back.

"You only said that you don't like singing without music." I retorted. She turned to face me with a smile.

"You know what? Fine, when we get to your house, pull out your damn guitar so you won't keep asking me to do this." She said.

"Finally. Also, who's to say I won't keep asking you anyways?" I questioned.

"You better not pester me about this." She replied, chuckling a little bit afterwards.

"Hey, I'm serious! I want to know what kind of voice you have!" I said, trying to make my case.

"Here, I'll make a deal with you, you sing a song after I sing one. Deal?" She asked, sticking out her hand. I was a little reluctant at first, but I shook her hand in the end.

"Deal." I said. I wasn't a singer, I was the one who made music with instruments and my computer, not my voice. "But don't be disappointed when my voice sounds awful." I said as she laughed.

"I don't think you'll be that bad, but you won't be as good as me." She said as she walked backwards in front of me. We eventually made it to my home and I went to my room to grab my guitar. I went out, and it occurred to me that I might not know how to play the song she wanted to sing.

"Um, Marie?" I asked as she looked over from her seat on the couch. "What song were you gonna sing?"

"Did you realize that you might not know how to play what song I want?" She asked and my eyes widened in surprise.

"Huh, you figured that out a while ago I guess. Why didn't you tell me?" I asked.

"Well, funnily enough, I only realized it when I actually chose what song I wanted, and not only that, the song I have in mind doesn't really have any guitar in it from what I remember." She said with a smile. I looked around a little confused.

"Um, so what do I do then?" I asked, still holding my guitar.

"You can play that for me a little later. Come over." She said as she gestured at the seat next to her.

"So what are you gonna sing to then?" I questioned, knowing that I couldn't do anything at this point.

"There's a piano version of it, I've remembered the lyrics to it at this point." She replied, pulling out her phone and tried looking for a version that worked, but the first few videos didn't quite work. I knew from the first video what it was, as the chords from the song were very familiar, and I recognised it as Nothing Without Love by Nate Ruess.

"No way! You can sing that?" I gasped. I had only found it about two months prior, but I loved that song and everything about it. I never imagined that Marie would be one to sing that, so it made it all the more surprising. Marie smiled a little, and I could see her blush.

"Well, yeah. I loved the song when I first heard it a while back, and I learned how to sing it, and, well, now I know all the words to it." Marie explained. It would be difficult to be better than the original, but I believed that Marie would do good. It took a few minutes before she actually found one that would work. She breathed in just to get ready and then she played the song.

" _I am nothing without love_

 _I'm but a ship stuck in the sand._

 _Some would say that I'm all alone,_

 _But I am, I'm nothing without love."_

As she started off, I could tell just how good of a singer she was. She wasn't as good as Nate himself, but she shocked me with how well she could sing. She looked over, and I guess she saw my shock because she smiled as she went on.

" _I want to hold him in my arms,_

 _But he feeling low, he feeling sad_

 _I would take credit for what's wrong_

 _But I am, I'm nothing without love."_

I was almost sure that my jaw fell onto the floor. Here was Marie, the girl who when we were kids had one of the shrillest voices in our little neighborhood, singing so good that it surprised me how she had no record deals with anyone.

" _Three years at sea after the storm,_

 _On this sinking ship that love had put me on._

 _God I wish a gust of wind would come and carry me home_

 _But I, I got nowhere to go._

 _Now here you show up with the force of a wave_

 _And so I'm setting my sail, I'm headed for the empire state._

 _Hey hey Lord, I don't want to lose this one,_

 _He made me feel whole. You know I am,_

 _I'm nothing without love."_

My shock for what was going on just kept growing as I listened to her voice. Unfortunately, she stopped before she could sing the rest of it, but I was still surprised by Marie's talent.

"Wait, why did you stop?" I asked, awestruck at the performance she gave. She looked down, obviously shy about her singing.

"It's a little weird singing for someone, I don't know." She mumbled out.

"Hey, your voice is amazing, seriously. Have you gotten any sort of record deal with anyone?" I asked. She shook her head.

"No, I've wanted to, but I always get nervous because they ask for some sort of demonstration or recording. I've always doubted myself in this, so I never actually tried getting a deal." She said, her face full of disappointment.

"Well what about some of your classes or theatre? Wouldn't they want you to sing in there?"

"They do, but I get too nervous when I try and mess it up. I can't sing in front of a crowd, it's really hard to fight back all the anxiety and nervousness of messing up that I end up messing up because I'm focusing too much on that." She said, defeat in her voice.

"Hmm, I never took you as someone with stage fright, Marie. Then again, I'm not sure how I can help, I have the same problem. I mean, I've danced in front of a crowd, but that's dancing. I'm sure singing would be even harder to get under control when you're nervous." I said, and I saw Marie get a small grin and look at me questioningly.

"Wait, you've danced in front of a crowd before? When was this?" She said as her grin turned into a smile as she wanted to hear the story. I told her that the breakdance club and I had performed in front of the school for one of our rallies. It was an annual thing my school did so that some of the clubs could perform in front of our school for a rally, and it was by far the best rally our school had all year. Last year was the first one I had performed in, and as terrified as I was, I managed to do really good. I messed up once, but it was only a minor mistake, so I managed to recover.

"It probably helped that I was with other people when I did it. I'm not sure if I could have done it if it was just me up there." I finished off, and I could see Marie invested in my story.

"You know, I still haven't seen you dance. How about instead of you singing, I see you dance?" She asked with a grin. I looked at her and smiled as I got up, looking to see what I could do in this room. I didn't want to knock stuff off tables or hit chairs, so windmills were out of the picture. I decided on just doing a simple set, starting off with some top rock, and then doing a few steps to transition to cc's. After doing that, I swung my legs to the opposite side of me, and tried to do a quick handstand in the same motion. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the fan was too low for me to be doing handstands, and my foot came right up and collided with one of the blades.

"Oh shi-!" I said as I brought my feet back down to me and landed on my back, knocking the wind out of me. Luckily for me, we didn't have our fans going, so the only damage done to me or the fan was tiny. Marie was already by my side with a concerned look on her face. All I could do was look at her and laugh. She joined in after a second.

"Why do you always laugh when you fall? Do you just have something against yourself?" She asked between laughs.

"No, it's just that I know how close that was to me getting even more hurt. I'm glad that the fan wasn't on because that would have hurt a lot more." I replied. I just laid on my back, looking as the fan stopped swinging. _I'll have to check that later. If my parents found out if I broke the fan, I'm not sure how they would react._ Marie decided to lay down next to me, and we just ended up talking about more random stuff. After a few minutes, a comfortable silence came between us. At least, **I** thought it was comfortable, but Marie had something else in mind.

"So, you know how I said I was going to make this whole relationship difficult for you?" She asked as she turned over to face me.

"Yeah, why?" I asked as I turned my head to her.

"Well, maybe I've changed my mind." She said with a smile, and before I knew it, her face was right next to mine, and our lips were locked. It took me by surprise, but I went with it once that initial fear had left me. I closed my eyes, and the feeling between us was something different, good, like that feeling between us when I realized I had feelings for her. The feelings that I was experiencing was beyond that, though, and there was energy between us as we kissed. The kiss lasted for a few seconds, and we both enjoyed the feeling of each other's lips and the passion behind the kiss. This was far from the kisses she gave when we were younger, this one had meaning behind it. We both let go, and looked into each other's eyes, smiling. Or, at least, she was smiling and I was in shock at what just happened.

"You ok over there, or was that a little too much for you?" She asked with a chuckle. I just chuckled and went along with it.

"I just didn't expect it was all, and for someone who said she was gonna make it difficult, what? A couple days ago?" I responded with a smirk. She just rolled her eyes and laid back down.

"Hey, I'm also the one who said that you would have to deal with all of my mood changes as well. I'm also pretty sure you enjoyed that kiss, so don't lie." She said as she laughed.

"I wasn't saying I didn't enjoy that, I'm just saying that you're a hypocrite." I said laughing along with her. I played one quick song on my guitar as we kept the banter up for a while until she had to leave. We kissed again as she left, but it was much quicker, even if it was just as filled with passion as the first one. I laughed to myself how we found out that we both like each other and just a few days later had already kissed. I was much happier as I went along with the rest of the day, but then I remembered Jonny and how he wanted to talk with me. I was guessing it had to be something important based on how he whispered for me to talk to him before Nazz. I texted him, and it was decided that I would be down in half an hour. I arrived at Jonny's house, which was only a short walk away and knocked on the door.

"Hey Double D! Come on in, I have to talk to you." Jonny greeted in a happy voice. I smiled and walked in.

"So what's going on?" I asked, seeing Jonny's face turn into one of worry and concern.

"Oh, well, you're not gonna like it. How about you sit down, do you want anything to drink?" He asked, his tone a little more serious. It had been a while since I had seen Jonny out of school, so I was glad to meet with him. I would have been much calmer if he didn't say that I wouldn't like it, but I felt like I would have had to hear it no matter what.

"No, I don't need anything, thank you though. Why did I need to talk to you before Nazz?" I asked, hoping that this would be resolved as quickly as possible. Jonny looked down, nervousness still plastered on his face.

"Well, I saw Nazz talk to you and Marie-say, are you two going out now?" He asked. He was trying to buy time, but I decided to answer him.

"Yeah, we actually found out we liked each other over the weekend." I said, smiling.

"You mean you found out that you liked her?" Jonny said as he snickered to himself.

"Well, yeah, I guess that's true." I said, smiling at the fact that Marie had liked me for a long time. "Anyways, sorry if I haven't talked to you for a while, it's been a crazy month so far." I said, trying to get everything out of the way before we actually talked about the main issue at hand.

"It's ok, I'm kind of used to it." He replied, which took me by surprise.

"Oh, well, sorry about that too…" I said, feeling guilty for even mentioning it.

"It's ok, you don't need to feel bad about it. After all, you've actually been pretty nice to me, so thanks for that." It made me feel better, but I still felt a little guilty about it.

"So, back to what I was talking about," Jonny began. "I saw Nazz talking to you and Marie, and I don't know if you know this, but they really hate each other. I think it has to with Marie putting some of the blame on Nazz as to why you left, and Nazz blaming Marie as to why Kevin and her didn't work out." This was news to me. I hadn't heard about this before, but I should have seen something like that coming. I doubt that that much hate could have just been natural. "Anyways, I think that Nazz has something planned, and I don't think it's anything good." Jonny finished off, and I felt glad that I had talked with Jonny.

"What do you think is gonna happen though?" I questioned.

"I think that Nazz is planning on trying to get you and Marie to break up, and whether that's by trying to get together with you or lying about something, she's gonna try her best." I felt confident that I wouldn't get together with Nazz, but her lying about me would be tricky, especially since she wanted me to come over at some point. "Remember what I told you about Nazz, she's cynical and hateful, especially toward Marie. I'd watch her if I were you, she's gonna try to get back at Marie." Jonny spoke, making me feel even worse now, but I felt that I could prevent something like this from happening. Hopefully if I talked to Marie about this before anything happened, it wouldn't be as bad if something did happen. I told him what I was planning to do, and he told me that that was probably the best idea. We talked for a little while longer, but this idea stayed in the back of my head, so I couldn't keep a good conversation going. I apologized and told Jonny that I would meet back up with him later. I walked out of his house, and as I kept thinking to myself, I heard someone call out to me.

"Double D!" I turned around, and sure enough, Nazz was at her door, looking out at me. I weighed out in my mind whether it would be better to ignore her or not, and eventually decided on the latter.

"Hey, Nazz. What's up?" I said, a little wary of if she was actually planning something.

"I just saw you out there and wondered if you wanted to stop by!" She shouted back. I don't know how she managed to see me in the minute I was leaving Jonny's house, but I had no intentions of going with Nazz until I told Marie what was happening.

"Uh, I actually have to get home, I have homework and other things to do." I replied as I started toward my house.

"Oh, wait! I can walk you over there!" I heard her shout as she closed the door and ran over to catch up to me. I had a bad feeling about this, and I knew it wasn't going to end well. Turns out, I wasn't far from the truth.

 **A.N: Sooooo… I might have extended this story by a couple more chapters on accident. Hopefully it turns out well. In other news, one of the followers of this story drew some awesome fanart, so I want to thank Sleepy Sepia for the drawing. Unfortunately, I know nothing about DeviantArt, so I can't tell you how to get to it...but they left a review with a link that you could probably copy and paste, so if you want to see it, go check it out. Hopefully I can get the next chapter out faster, but I am going camping for the week, so don't expect updates or replies for the next week. Thank you all for reading, and if you enjoyed, be sure to review! If you see any errors in grammar or spelling, don't hesitate to point it out, I want to make sure this story is as enjoyable as possible. Thank you for the support, and until next time, bye!**


	16. Chapter 16

**A.N: Well, it's been what? Like five months? I'm sorry about that, finding time with my classes is difficult enough, but on the bright side, I'm taking a creative writing class right now, so hopefully newer chapters and stories will be written/styled better! Anyways, thank you all for the support, and we shall move onto the next chapter!**

As Nazz and I were walking, my mind kept wandering to what Jonny had said. Even though Jonny told me to stay away from her, she didn't seem to pose any threat and was just trying to have a friendly chat. I decided not to shut her out completely, but I was going to stay wary of her.

"So what are you doing out here anyways?" Nazz asked.

"I was just talking with Jonny, we've become pretty good friends recently." I answered, not going into too much detail about what we were talking about.

"Oh, that's nice," She said, but her tone didn't sound interested. "So are you and Marie dating?" She asked, pretty straightforwardly.

"Uh, yeah, we are actually, why?" I responded.

"Well, I saw you two holding hands earlier today, so I just wanted to know for sure." She spoke, unnervingly upbeat. I was definitely going to stay wary of her, something didn't seem right in this conversation. There were a couple minutes of silence, and by that time we had turned onto the street my house was on. I thought that I might be able to survive my encounter and that I was just overreacting. To fill the silence between us for the last stretch to my house, I asked a question.

"So why did you want to walk me home?"

"Well I just wanted to catch up with you a little, and to talk with you a little bit." Nazz replied. Once again, Jonny's warning about Nazz crept into my head and my subconscious tried to find any ulterior motives to what Nazz was saying. However, I tried not to let my suspicion show. We got up to my house and at that time the sun was setting, but it wasn't dark enough for the street lights to turn on yet.

"Alright, well thanks for walking with me." I said, trying to end this interaction with Nazz as quickly as possible without being too rude.

"Oh so this is your house?" She asked as she stopped to look at it. I kept walking up to my porch which was quite dark as it was facing away from the sunset.

"Yeah, it is." I said as I started to fish my keys out of my pocket. Nazz walked back up to me, and I eyed her out of the corner of my eye, annoyed. As we walked up my driveway, I said thanks again just incase she didn't hear it the first time.

"Oh yeah, no problem, I just wanted to talk with you for a little bit." She replied, and she seemed to be fiddling with her hands, looking down. "Hey, I have to tell you something first." She started as we walked up to my porch. I stopped in front of the steps and turned to her.

"Yeah? What is it?" I asked looking at her.

"Well, it's about Marie. I wanted to warn you about her." She said, still looking down at her hands. "I overheard her talking with May a few days ago, saying how 'he was falling for it like last time.' I didn't know who she was talking about at first, but, I think she was talking about you, Edd." Nazz said, looking up at me with worry in her eyes. This completely caught me off guard, and I stood there like a deer in headlights. I recovered quickly, but I still didn't know what to say. We stood there for some time, before I asked a question.

"Are you sure she was talking about me, or was she talking about someone she had been messing with?" I said, a small grin on my face.

"Well, that's what I don't know! It might have been, I didn't hear much else besides that, but that's what I'm worried about. I can't trust her anyways, she just doesn't seem like she's truthful. Listen, I just wanted to let you know that, I'm not sure how much you can trust her." She finished with a sigh, not making much eye contact after doing so. I thought over this for a minute, before making a response.

"I can handle myself, don't worry, alright?" I asked her, trying my best to reassure her. I still wasn't sure if this was all part of some plan, so I was going to make sure I kept a sharp eye for anything.

"I know, I just, really don't want anything bad to happen to you." She said as she hugged me, catching me off guard yet again. I hugged her back, very wary and confused about her actions.

"But why are you so worried about me? Sure, I get that we were friends for years a while back, but why worry about me now? Seriously, I can handle this if it's true." I said, putting extra emphasis on "if it's true." We pulled away, and she still seemed worried.

"I know you can handle it, I just always worry about the 'if not.' I'm sure you can handle it, but if you need someone to talk to, I'll be here." Nazz replied.

"I know." I said, nodding my head. "Well I'll be going inside, you should get back home too." I said. She agreed and I went inside my house. I hoped that whatever Nazz was planning, it wouldn't end badly for Marie and I. Even if Marie had said that, she was probably talking about someone else like Eddy falling for a trick she pulled...right?

…..

It took some time to finally convince myself that Marie wouldn't do anything like that to me, especially after remembering all of the things I was told Marie had gone through after I left. I had my doubts, sure, but they weren't anything to worry about. I wanted to tell Marie about what had just happened, but I knew that the outcome of that would be a fight between, Nazz and Marie. The only question that was still bothering me about the whole lie, was why Nazz would lie. What would she gain from it? I don't think she wants me, especially after what Jonny told me about her after her breakup with Kev. I don't know why she would want to mess with Marie like this, unless she really doesn't like Marie. I still didn't know the details as to why they hated each other so much, and sure, I had the basics from Jonny, but I felt like details would help me. As much as I wanted to get the answers, though, I had to sleep, as it would probably be too late to go over to Marie's place.

…..

Tuesday felt like a normal day when I woke up, but then I remembered that I would have to ask Marie about her past with Nazz. It never is good when the day gets started off in a bad mood. I was worried, worried that Nazz and Marie would start a fight if I let the details slip out, worried that what Nazz had said was true, and worried that everything could take a quick turn today. I went through my normal routine, but I knew that the whole morning was ruined, just because of a single question I would ask. I felt like I didn't have to overreact about it, but I couldn't help it. I got to school and sat at my wall like normal, listening to music. It was only a minute later when Marie came sauntering up to me, grin on her face. I only gave her a half hearted smile, and I popped an earbud out to hear her.

"Hey, are you alright?" She asked, tilting her head to look at me.

"I just have to ask you a question later, that's all." I replied, trying to give a reassuring smile, but it probably came off as forced.

"You sure you want to ask me later? Seems like it would be better if you asked me now." She said, narrowing her eyes to look at me.

"I'm pretty sure." I stated simply.

"I don't think so. Go ahead and ask me." She said.

"Just promise me to keep your emotions under control for now, please." I asked. She looked thoughtful about it, before looking me straight in the eyes.

"I can't promise anything, but I'll try my hardest." She said.

"Oh God, I hope nothing bad happens," I groaned under my breath. "Alright, so why is there so much bad blood between you and Nazz?" I finally asked. Marie looked at the ground and furrowed her brow.

"Well, we both tried to shove our problems onto each other, trying to put the blame onto the other as much as possible if things went wrong. I guess that's why." She said, never taking her eyes off the ground.

"Is that all?" I asked, still looking at her. There was a long pause before she broke.

"No, it's not. We both said things that hit a little too close to home, some things I really don't want to forgive her for. I'm sure she doesn't want to forgive me either, but I don't care at this point. Why do you want to know, anyways?" She finally asked, looking up at me.

"You were right yesterday, Nazz is up to something. I talked with her yesterday and she said things that really put up some red flags." I said, taking a quick look to make sure Nazz wasn't around.

"Really? What did she say?" Marie asked forcefully.

"She said that she overheard you saying that I was falling for it again like when we were younger. She thought you were talking about me, and that you were planning to trick me or something. I don't believe her though. It seemed that it was all a little planned out by her." I said, and as I explained, the look on Marie's face got more disgusted than before.

"Of course she would pull something like that. Don't worry, I can handle this." She said as she looked in the direction of the cheerleaders table.

"No no no no! I can handle it, trust me. I just need to get a plan together." I said, trying to keep her from starting the fight I was worried about.

"Fine, I'll trust you on this one." She replied through clenched teeth.

"Hey, listen. It'll be alright, got it?" I said with a small smile before kissing her. As I came back, I saw her with the tiniest of smiles on her face too. She looked me in the eyes and smiled a little bit wider.

"You really should do that more often you know." She said. I laughed, and was going to reply, but the bell rang before I could. We went to our classes, and I had time to think about what to do about Nazz. I could easily just ignore her, but that would only last so long before Nazz would try something else. Nazz may not have the best plans to sabotage my relationship with Marie, but she will probably be persistent, and while I feel like I can control my feelings over what she says, I'm not sure about Marie. I had to find a way to finish this, and quickly. As much as i wanted to think about it, though, I had to focus on my period, Kevin came up to me and asked me if that Saturday would be a good time for the party. I had completely forgotten about it already, but I agreed to it and he said he would work out a time later. I put it on my calendar on my phone so that I wouldn't plan anything else on that day. It would be nice to have a little party with some of my old friends, even if they have changed. Who knows, maybe Ed, Eddy and I will get into trouble at this party like the past. I chuckled a little bit, remembering all the shenanigans we used to get into. I got to calculus, and Marie was waiting for me like last time, except without the sly grin.

"So have you come up with a plan yet?" She asked, her arms crossed.

"No, not yet," I sighed, "I've had to work on my classes, I'll tell you when I think of one."

"Listen, I told you before, I have my own plan if yours doesn't work out." She said cracking her knuckles. I grinned and shook my head, knowing she was only half joking.

"As much as I would like to say that would work because it's easy, it wouldn't solve anything. It would probably make more problems than before. I thought about it earlier, and she might not just be trying to go after me to break us up. I just want you to keep your emotions in control, because if either of us lose our cool, she'll have what she wants." I told Marie.

"Wait, do you think I don't keep good control of my emotions?" Marie asked me, her eyes showing genuine hurt. I immediately hugged her to make sure she would feel better.

"No, I didn't mean it like that. I just mean both of us have to keep her in the back of our thoughts. We can't let her bother us and let her get to us, otherwise she'll get what she wants." I said, holding her close. The warning bell rang as she hugged me back, and we both let go as I walked into class.

"Hey!" She snapped just as my hand reached the doorknob. I looked back confused as she took a step to me. "You forgot something!" She clarified as she gripped my shirt collar and pulled me in for a kiss. I made a big show to roll my eyes jokingly at her, but in all honesty, I liked it when she did stuff like that. We went through calculus, so I didn't have time to think of a plan. After school, Marie and I headed to our separate homes, and on the walk home I thought of a plan. I needed a way to stop persistence, which is much easier said than done. I must have gone through fifteen different types of plans before I got home, and still none of them worked. The more ideas I tried to come up with, the more the thought came into my head that the next step Nazz might try to go into is to spread rumors about us with the entire school. I knew it was just a possibility, but it still worried me. Not only that, the plans I kept coming up with would end up being straight up mean to Nazz, but as much trouble as she's trying to cause, I don't want to hurt her. After all, that could just backfire and blow up right in my face. After another hour of thinking up a plan while doing homework, I thought of a plan. I knew if Marie and I talked to Nazz, she couldn't convince us of one of her lies. I knew Marie hadn't said anything like what Nazz was trying to convince me, but with Marie there, she could disprove it. Now I only had to think of where we could confront Nazz and talk to her about her lies. I took a look at my phone's calendar and smiled. I had a plan.

 **A.N: So, I'll be honest: I don't like this story as much as when I started it, pretty much at all. I've learned a lot from it, no doubt, and I appreciate it, but I'm not sure how good the ending will be. I don't want to say "expect a bad ending," but don't get your hopes up. I want to give it a good ending, but I also want to get it done. I feel it has turned into a mess, and with my schedule and updating, it's a slow mess. Enough with my rant, please do tell me your opinions on this chapter in the reviews, if you like how I'm writing, how I can improve it, etc. And please don't feel like you're being too harsh, this fic has turned into a learning experience for me, I appreciate criticism. I'll try my best to update it sooner than five months from now, and thank you for reading this. Have a great day!**


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